CONTENTS

Introduction ................................. 1

Facts & Figures ......... ,..................... '. 1

The Scene is Set .............................. 3

The Occupation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5

De-Nazification ................................ 7
The Role of the OSS ....................... 9

Belsen ............•........................ 11

The International Military Tribunal ............... 11

Jackson's Speech ......................... 18
Psychology of Defendants .................. 19
The Defendants .......................... 19
The Witnesses' .................... . . . . . .. 29
The Sentences ........................... 34
The Executions .......................... 34
The Imprisonments ....................... 34

The American Military Tribunal ................. 35

AMT4 ................................. 36
AMT6 ................................. 37
AMT7 ................................. 39
AMT9 ................................. 40
AMTI0 ................................ 41
The Prosecution ......................... 44

Trial of'Manstein ............................. 45

Dachau Trials ............................... 48

Trial of Eichmann ............................ 51

Eichmann the Zionist ..................... 54

Recent German Trials ......................... 55

Italian Trials ................................ 56

Criticism of the Trials •........................ 57

The Charges ............................. 57
The Court .............................. 58
The Defendants .......................... 58
The Hidden Aspect ....................... 59

APPENDICES
A The Katyn Massacre ...................... 59

B Bombing of Civilians ...................... 61

C The 'Repatriation~' ....................... 64

D Palestine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 66

Bibliography ................................ 69
Cover photo shows the funeral pyre set up in a Dresden street of
some of the 135,000 civilian victims of Allied bombing of that
German city.

Printed & published by Historical Review Press,

Chapel Ascote, Ladbroke, Southam; Warks., England
 INTRODUCTION
The execution in in 1976 of British and American
mercenaries in Angola for 'war crimes' has brought back to
public attention this peculiar and disturbing subject.
During the Angolan trial, the judges intervened at several
points to restrain the defence counsel from putting its case
too well. The court could not tolerate any evidence which
might help the accused criminals, they said.
The British press whined hypocritically about this
travesty of justice. Yet the simple-minded Angolans were
only doing as their European mentors had taught them:
the Angolan trial was virtually a carbon-copy of the Inter-
Inter
national Military Tribunal at Niirnberg in 1946. All the
ingredients were there: the pretence of justice, the
restrictions on the defence, the presumption of guilt·
guilt before
the trial had even started, the supervision of an inter- inter
national tribunal, the hysterical accusations of prosecution
witnesses etc., etc. It is easy for the press to complain
about the standards of 'justice' in in a backward and far-off
land in darkest Africa. But it is not so easy for them to
criticise a series of trials for which we were responsible, at
least in part, and which have gone down in history and
subsequent protocol agreements, as legal precedent.
We are subject to no such restrictions. In this short
volume, we hope to examine as thoroughly and objectively
as possible the vexed subject of the trials at Niirnberg, and
in so doing make some contribution to a rational under- under
standing of this aspect of recent history which has, along
with other events, been grotesquely twisted by the enemies
of truth. One such example is the allegation that six million
Jews were gassed as part of an official extermination pro pro-
gramme on the part of the German government of the
Hitler era and which formed one of the major charges
against the Nazi leaders at Niirnberg.
FACTS &
& FIGURES
The peak period for NaziNazi war crimes trials was
was the three
years immediately after the war, war, although
although trials
trials are still
still
going on to this day.
Various nations dealt first of all with their own citizens,
in a series of treason trials. Anton Mussert was executed by
the Dutch. Vidkun Quisling was executed by the Norwegian
government. William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") was tried
for treason by the British government, who were able to
'prove' that Joyce was British, and therefore capable of
committing treason, because he had at one stage forged a
British passport. In fact, Joyce was born in America of
Irish parents, and became a German citizen in 1939. He
too was executed, but it was not until August 1976 that
his remains were shipped back to Ireland for burial in the
family grave at Galway -— a rather belated recognition of
the fact that Joyce was indeed an Irishman, after all. all. As a
citizen of a neutral country there was no way Joyce could
have committed treason against a foreign, belligerent
country; Britain.
The Americans put on trial the famous poet, Ezra Pound,
but a jury found him to be insane. The French executed
thousands of 'traitors' during the anarchic days after the
Liberation. Few of these received proper trials. We shall
never know how many Russians were put to death by the
Soviet Union, but a general outline of these atrocities is
gradually coming to light today, thanks to the writings of
Alexandr Solzhenitsyn and others.
Holland tried
tried and
and executed Rauter. Czechoslovakia dealt
1
similarly with K. H. Frank, Ludin and Wisliceny. Poland
Biihler, Greiser, Stroop and Hoss. Yugoslavia.
executed BUhler, Yugoslavia
9fficially
officially executed Kasche and Lohr. But these 'show-
trials' were only the tip of the iceberg. We shall never
know how many were really put to death behind the Iron
Curtain.
In Germany itself, 1000 cases had been tried, involving
about 3500 German defendants, by March 1948.
21 of the leading Nazis were tried by an International
Tribunal at Niirnberg. All the other trials were unilateral,
i.e. they were run by one nation only, although on occasion
there was representation by a second nation at the trial. At
the Peleus trial, for example, there were Greek naval
officers sitting on the British military tribunal because the
SS Peleus had been a Greek ship.
The Americans managed to grab for themselves the
prestige and satisfaction of trying the 199 'second string'
Nazi . leaders in twelve subsequent trials, also held at
Niirnberg. 38 were acquitted (but later faced de-nazification
tribunals), 36 were given death sentences (18 of which
were carried out), 23 were sentenced to life imprisonment,
and 102 were given shorter sentences. Summaries of the
trials were published in 1949 as a 15 volume set, although
there is also a more complete 11 117 7 volume edition which is
just a bound collection of the duplicated court transcripts.
The documentary evidence at the American Military
Tribunal (AMT) is now lodged at the American Documen-Documen
tation Centre at Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washing-
Washing
ton, DC. Most of it is on microfilm, and members of the
public can order reproductions therefrom. One Ope of the
members of the War Documentation Project, whose task it
was to index the mountain of captured Nazi war records at
Alexandria, was Raul Hilberg, the famous 'holocaust
expert'. Hilberg was himself a refugee from Nazi Germany
who fled to America, subsequently becoming a political
scientist at the University of Vermont. His famous book,
The Destruction of the European Jews is supposed to be
the definitive work on the holocaust, but it has subsequently
been shown to be highly dubious, thanks mainly to the
work
work of Paul Rassinier.
of Paul Rassinier.
The Americans also
The Americans also ran
ran trials
trials at
at Dachau,
Dachau, where 420
where 420
death
death sentences were handed
sentences were handed down.
down. The
The Dachau
Dachau trials
trials
represented an all-time low in Western concepts of justice.
Brutality, torture and cruelty were the order of the day.
On trial were some of the staff of Mauthausen, Dachau,
Flossenburg and Buchenwald concentration camps, as well
as some German soldiers accused of murdering Americans
Malm~dy during the Ardennes counter-
captured at Malm^dy
offensive.
In the British zone of occupation, 356 war crime trials
were held involving more than 1000 defendants. In charge
of administering the trials was Sir Henry MacGeagh, who
was head of the UK UK office of the United
United Nations
Nations War
Crimes Commission. His legal advisor was Lord Russell of
Liverpool, who died in 1975. The British military trials
were held at Liineberg, Hamburg and in Italy. At Liineberg,
Josef Kramer, Irme Grise and 43 others from the staffs of
Belsen and Auschwitz were tried. Thirty of the accused
were found guilty and eleven were sentenced to death by
hanging. In the Zyklon B case, Bruno Tesch
T'esch and two others
were tried for supplying Zyklon B pesticide to the concen-
concen
tration camps administration. Tesch and one other were
hanged. In the Natzweiler trial, Alphons Klein and five
others were charged with killing four British women
parachute commandos by injection. One of the accused
was hanged and the rest received terms of imprisonment.
In the Peleus trial at Hamburg, the captain and four
 French
French War
War Crimes trials at
Crimes trials at Rastatt
Rastatt

members of the crew of German U-boat 852 were charged terms of imprisonment were handed down, but within
with murdering the survivors of the cargo ship SS Peleus, days the government had granted the men amnesty. In
which they had just sunk. Three were sentenced to death disgust, the council of Orad our handed back the medals
Oradour
by firing squad, and the other two were sentenced to which had been awarded to the town.
prison. The British also tried several German generals in By 1963, the total of war crime sentences was as follows:
Italy; at Rimini and Venice. General von Falkenhorst was
tried for the murder of British commandos in Norway. The
British trials were published, with many useful appendices,
in a series by Wm. Hodge & Co. in 1948/9, under the Court
Court Total Death
editorship of Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, the Deputy British Sentences Sentences
Chief Prosecutor at the original IMT trial. Manstein's 1949 IMT
IMT 21 (+1)* 11 (+1)*
trial is described by his defence counsel, Reginald Paget in USA
USA 1814 450
450
Manstein (Collins, 1951). UK
UK 1085
1085 240
240
The French trials were held at Rastatt, and included France 2107 104
104

that of Saar industrial magnate Hermann Rochling, whom USSR

USSR c.10000 ??
West Germany 12846
12846 ??
also tried in absentia
the French had also absentia after World War 1.
I. In
1953, they also attempted to try 21 SS men for the 1944
massacre at Oradour, when an entire village with its ♦Note: Bormann was tried
*Note: tried and sentenced to death in absentia.
population were destroyed. When it turned out that 14 of
the men were Frenchmen themselves, from Alsace, the
trial became a political hot-potato. The Alsace
Alsace government
claimed that Alsatians were being victimised. In the middle Most of the death sentences were carried out, although
of the trial, the law against 'collective guilt' was repealed, some were reduced to terms of imprisonment. The chrono- chrono
rendering the trial little more than an academic exercise. logical list of trials in the West is as follows (few details are
When the trial finished, two death sentences and various available for Communist trials behind the Iron Curtain):
2
Year
Year Court
Court Venue
Venue Defendants
from Vansittart's way-out hate-mongering, was was sufficiently
Defendants
impressed with his his approach that he sent tapes of VanVan-
1945/6 IMT
1945/6 IMT Numberg
Niirnberg 21 Nazi
21 Nazi leaders
leaders B. Donovan,
sittart's British radio hate speeches to William B.
1946/9 USA
1946/9 USA
1945/6 UK
UK
Numberg
Niirnberg (AMT)
12 subsequent trials (AMT) Co-ordinator of Information, and later chief of the OSS ass
1945/6 Luneberg
Liineberg Belsen, Auschwitz staff
Belsen, (the fore-runner of the CIA), to be used as American radio
1946
1946 UK
UK Hamburg
Hamburg trial
Peleus trial
Peleus
1946
1946 UK
UK Italy
Italy generals
German generals
propaganda.
1946
1946 USA
USA Dachau
Dachau Mauthausen, Dachau,
Mauthausen, Vansittart's hymn of hate against Germany was soon
Flossenburg, Buchenwald
Flossenbiirg, Bucnenwald staffs taken up and echoed on the other side of the Atlantic too.
Malm6dy SS
& Malmedy SS A writer by the name of Theodore N.
A N. Kaufman, in
in Germany
1949
1949 UK
UK Hamburg von
Hamburg von Manstein
Manstein Must Perish (Argyle Press, Newark, 1941) insisted that the
Must
1950
1950 W. Germany
W. Augsburg
1951
1951 W. Germany
W. Ravensburg Nazis were "merely mirrors reflecting the centuries-old
1951
1951 France
France Paris
Paris German generals inbred lust of the German nation for conquest and mass
1953
1953 France
France Paris
Paris Oradour soldiers
Oradour soldiers was the "German people" who were "respon
murder." It was "respon-
1956
1956 W. Germany
W. Dortmund
Dortmund sible" for the war and hence "must be made to pay." To To
1957
1957 W. Germany
W. Kempten
advo-
rid the world of these "war-lusted souls" Kaufman advo
1958
1958 W. Germany
W. Cologne
1958
1958 W. Germany
W. Ansbach
Ansbach cated the "eugenic sterilisation" of 48 million Germans.
1959
1959 W. Germany
W. Augsburg By such a policy he estimated that "Germanism" could be
By be
1959
1959 W. Germany
W. Cobourg extinguished in two generations. Meanwhile, German PoWsPoWs
1959
1959 W. Germany
W. Landshut
Landshut •

could, after sterilisation, be placed in "labour battalions"

1959
1959 W. Germany
W. Kempten
1959
1959 W. Germany
W. Munich
Munich
while the Reich itself could be partitioned among its
1959
1959 W. Germany
W. Ansbach
Ansbach deserving neighbours. Kaufmann even illustrated his tract
1960
1960 W. Germany
W. Fulda
Fulda with a hand-drawn map, showing France stretching as as far
1960
1960 W. Germany
W. Kempten as Erfurt, Holland trebling its size to reach almost to the
1960
1960 W. Germany
W. Ansbach
Ansbach
gates of Berlin, and Poland and Czechia (?) dividing what
1960
1960 W. Germany
W. Limburg
1960
1960 W. Germany
W. Stuttgart is now East Germany equally between them. All All this was
was
1960
1960 W. Germany
W. Munich
Munich the more
the more remarkable
remarkable in
in that
that Kaufmann's
Kaufmann's rant
rant was
was written
written
1961
1961 Israel
Israel Jerusalem
Jerusalem Eichmann
Eichmann and published before the USA entered the war!
1961
1961 W. Germany
W. Berlin
Berlin As the war progressed, the hate campaign was stepped
1961
1961 W. Germany
W. Hamburg
1961
1961 W. Germany
W. Duisburg up too, and the first official demands for bloody revenge
1962
1962 W. Germany
W. Germany Baden-
Baden- started to be made. Early in 1943, the former US
Baden
Baden ambassador to Germany, James W. Gerard, urged that
1962
1962 W.
W. Germany Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden when the Allies conquered Germany they hang 10,000
1963
1963 W.
W. Germany Frankfurt
Frankfurt Auschwitz
Auschwitz staff
staff
Prussians as a starter. Joseph E. Davies, a confidant of
1967
1967 W.
W. Germany Cologne
1976
1976 W. Germany Hamburg Roosevelt's and a former ambassador to the USSR, said
1976
1976 Holland
Holland Roermond
Roermond SS camp guard that the Germans should be treated like insane asylum
1976
1976 W. Germany
W. Dusseldorf
Diisseldorf Majdanek guards inmates for two or three generations and, as if to justify
his hate, confidently predicted that the Germans would
The bodies of the eleven Germans sentenced to death by begin using poison gas and bacteriological warfare very
the
the IMT
IMT were
were cremated
cremated at
at Dachau
Dachau and
and the
the ashes
ashes sifted
sifted into
into shortly. A New Jersey radio station ran a competition to
the River Isar. The hundreds of others executed by the select the best replacement word for 'kindergarten',
'kindergarten5, because
subsequent military tribunals are buried in prison graves at it was borrowed from the German language. A prominent
various places. There are 247 graves at Hamelin, 758 at judge and a newspaper publisher agreed to act as
Landsberg, and 14 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Kansas, adjudicators.
worth, Kansas. But the greatest hate-gener~tion
hate-generation source of all was.
was the
Writers' Wf!'!
War Board, a quasi-governmental agency set up
early in the war by Roosevelt's advil!eradviser Morgenthau.
THE
THE SCENE
SCENE IS
IS SET
SET Morgenthau selected as WWB director Rex Stout, an author
WWBdirector
of third-rate detective stories and other pot-boilers. Stout
In the United States, the chorus of demands for the trial in turn hand-picked other writers of sensationalist, popular
of the Nazi leaders developed mostly out of the hate- fiction to contribute their talents to the Board. Members
mongering campaign operated by various official and semi-
semi received no compensation for their efforts, but the govern-
govern
official propaganda agencies. At the beginning of the war, ment paid for overheads such as secretarial staff and office
the American people regarded the ordinary Germans as expenses. The Board worked closely with the Office of
quite pleasant people who had been railroaded into the War Information, the propaganda off-shoot of the ass.OSS.
war by that tyrant Hitler. Such a corporate view would not Two weeks after the Allies' Casablanca conference, the
tolerate Washington's plans for a mass-murder of German Board swung into action with an article written by Stout
civilians through day and night bombing raids. Nor would in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, rather appro- appro
they accept the degradation and humiliation of the priately entitled "We Shall Hate or We We Shall Fail". Stout
Germans after the Nazis' defeat. asserted that four generations of German leaders had been
Early on in the war, the main protagonist of frenzied, guided by the "adoration of force as the only arbiter, and
anti-German hatred was Sir (later Lord) Robert Vansittart, skulduggery as the supreme technique in human affairs."
the British diplomatist. In a series of radio broadcasts of Hatred of the Germans, he wrote, was necessary "to
fantastic fury in 1941, Vansittart wove a paranoid picture establish the world on a basis of peace." Obviously the
of "German evil and viciousness" which stretched back American public was not yet ready for such paranoia, for
two thousand years. He compared Germany to the shrike the editor of the Times was deluged with letters in oppos-
oppos .
or butcher-bird, which preys on its weaker neighbours. ition to Stout. Several church groups made official protests.
President Roosevelt, whilst officially disassociating himself Stout's campaign was rabidly supported by Clifton
3
Fadumln,
Fadiman, who at that time was the book review editor of
the New Yorker weekly magazine. Fadiman, who was
Stout's right-hand man on the WWB, used his magazine
position to promote more anti-German hatred. Fadiman
noted that there was "only one way to make a German
understand and that's to kill them, and even then I think
they don't understand." (original grammar).
The WWB also "advised" radio stations and even
arranged programmes and wrote speeches. 'One One of the
Board's most prominent front-men, Quentin Reynolds the
war correspondent and Collier's magazine columnist,
announced on the popular radio programme "America's
Town Meeting of the Air" that hatred was a "healthy"
emotion, and that the mental disease of Germany could
not be cured -— "you must kill." On another edition of the
same programme, on 30 September 1943, the British hate-
monger Lord V ansittart was the principal guest, along with
Vansittart
Richard M. Bruckner, the author of a book Is Germany
Incurable? which the WWB was promoting. Bruckner,
introduced as a "noted psychiatrist", proposed the incarcer-
incarcer
ation in institutions and labour battalions of large numbers
of "paranoid-tending" Germans. They would be treated as
"typhoid carriers"; their children would be taken away
from them and placed in foster homes. Later in the war,
the programme presented Louis Nizer, the author of yet
another book on What to Do with Germany, who proposed
that death penalties should be demanded not only of
about 5000 high Nazi officials, but also of 150,000 sub- sub
ordinates and civil servants. Every German officer above
the rank of colonel, along with members of the Reichstag,
and many others, would be tried. Hundreds of thousands
of Germans would be given jail sentences ranging up to
life, which they would serve in labour battalions. But this
alone would not cure the German "lust for war", he
asserted. All heavy industry must be removed from
Germany in order to prevent any ideas about a new war.
On the same radio programme, Samuel Grafton, a syndi- syndi
cated columnist, also urged the permanent exiling or
imprisonment without trial of at least 10,000 "members of
the leading Nazi circles".
circles".
Both "America's Town Meeting of the Air" and its
sister programme "America's Forum of the Air" were
heavily influenced by the WWB. Stout not only selected
many of the speakers on programmes relating to Germany
but was also able to influence the choice of subjects and
titles. Some of this influence was wielded indirectly
through a WWB offshoot, the Society for the Prevention of
World War III, which preached even greater vindictiveness
than its parent body. The Society was also controlled by
Stout, and was financed privately by Robert Woods Bliss,
a former USUS ambassador to the Argentine; funds being
channelled through the leftist Brookings Institute in
Washington. Oddly, the Society's main target in America
was the Council for a Democratic Germany, a group of
anti-Nazi German refugees who hoped to restore demo- demo
cracy and reconstruct Germany as soon as possible. Stout
made sure that the Council got little publicity, and publicly
condemned efforts to "salvage Germany".
But the most amazing example of the WWB's power
was its ability to actually re-write history, in exactly the
same way that Winston Smith used the "Memory Hole" at
the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984. In order to
promote the idea of German war guilt, it was necessary to
overturn the
the historical verdict
verdict on World War I. Most
historians conducting research into the origins of the first
war had by that time concluded that exclusive blame could
not be allocated to Germany or any participant. Their
4
collective findings were reflected in the 1930 edition of
the Encyclopaedia Britannica, where an 8000-word
BOOO-word article
on War Guilt elaborated on this view. First the WWB
softened up public opinion for the project re-writing, with
an article by Stout in the NYT Book Review. Stout com- com
plained, at some length, that those who "excused" the
Germans of First World War guilt were "fatally deceiving
their countrymen". That the Times should give such
prominent space to the dismissal of the collective
conclusions of most, serious, historians, by a writer of
cheap detective novels, is an indication of the power the
WWB wielded. But there was more to to come. The revisionist
view of history first voiced by Stout was echoed and re- re
echoed by innumerable government officials, newspaper
editors and media men: Germany had again become solely
guilty of starting World War I; after all, they had started
BO years,
five wars in 80 years; hadn't they? In its 1944 edition, the
Encyclopaedia Britannica cut out the 8000-word
BOOO-word article,
and substituted a brief note saying there was not sufficient
space for adequate treatment of the subject of War Guilt.
History had been re-written.
Although the WWB was officially restrained from
making political attacks, the Board was still able to "draw
attention to" certain points in its mail-outs. The Board
regularly monitored the radio comments of independent
broadcasters, and attempted to silence anyone who was
too soft on Germany by putting pressure on the pro- pro
grammes' sponsors. Commentators such as Fulton Lewis Jr.
who were attacked in material mailed out by the Board,
and who protested to the Office of War Information, were
told that the Board was not a governmental agency and
hence not under
under its control.
One of the best-known broadcasters who took
One took the
WWB's hate-Germany line was Walter Winchell (real name
Isadore Lipschitz). Winchell's views on Germany were
expressed to millions of listeners in terms of "a rattlesnake
never
never deserves another chance".
deserves another chance".
July 1944 saw the appearance of an influential book
Time For Decision, by the then recently-retired Under
Secretary of State Sumner Welles. Welles wrote that even at
this .late
late stage in the war, the Germans were already
making plans for a third world war. The book was awarded
a prominent review in the New York Times, the reviewer
commenting that the obvious solution to this danger would
be for Germany to be deprived of all its heavy industry,
since "no one need fear an agricultural, small-crafts
economy". Naturally, the book also received heavy WWB
promotion.
Films too were grist to the WWB mill. Hate films
proliferated depicting shining American heroes pitted
against brutal Nazis. When The North Star showed German
army doctors bleeding children to death to top up their
blood-banks, Time magazine hailed the picture as the
"most successful attempt to show a sickening German
atrocity in credible terms." Hollywood did not forget box
office receipts either, and many of the hate films were
heavily flavoured with sex, much of it of the sado- sado
masochistic variety.
Academics and educators joined in the baying for
German blood. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of
the (Communist-infiltrated) Carnegie Endowment for
"International Peace" and former president of Columbia
University, said that when the war ended Germans could
not be regarded as anything but convicted criminals. In a
statement circulated by the WWB, he asserted that for a
generation Germans could not be accepted as equal citizens
of the post-war world. Several educationalists proposed
------
that all Axis schoolteachers who had willingly stayed at more weight to Julius Streicher's allegation that he was
their posts throughout the war should be discharged and beaten up by by negro American soldiers whilst in jail at
"forever barred from teaching again". But the most pre pre- Niirnberg.)
posterous suggestion of all -— from any source -— came Efforts were of course made to prevent fraternisation
from an an eminent anthropologist, Dr. Ernest A. Hooton between the American troops and the German civilians. In
of Harvard University. He He proposed to dilute the German June, the military police arrested a thousand offenders and
stock (and thereby "adulterate the Nazi strain") by by a reported them for court martial. This stemmed from a
process of outbreeding, i.e. miscegenation. This would be United States directive (JCS 1067) of April 1945, which
accomplished by sending Czechs, Austrians and others into forbade fraternisation. Most of the ideas in in this directive,
Germany, where they would settle and interbreed with the sent to General Eisenhower from Washington, came (yet
German people. Men of the German army would be kept again) from Morgenthau. A special study of the widespread
out of their native land while the "outbreeding" was going infringement of the regulations was made by an officer of
on, probably by being put into forced labour in formerly the Psychological Warfare Branch of the OSS, Saul K.
occupied countries. (Astute readers will of course realise Pad over, an historian and psychologist. The study was later
Padover,
that this plan was eventually to involve ethnic groups published as a book: Psychologist in Germany (Phoenix
much more
much more exotic than the
exotic than the "Czechs"
"Czechs" andand "Austrians"
"Austrians" and and House, 1946), which FitzGibbon describes as "highly
it was not only the Germans who would be made to suffer emotional, with the standard left-wing views of intellectuals
this dreadful fate, as the residents of towns and cities in those days: violently pro-Russian and anti-German."
throughout Britain are only too aware.) The ordinary GIs could not fathom the logic of the
By January 1945, WWB material was being sent to order -— or its nomenclature. For as one culprit remarked:
3500 writers, 1150 army information services, 2600 "I never wanted to treat her like she was my brother." On
industrial newspapers and 270 comic strip editors. 12 June 1945, Field Marshal Montgomery partially
Syndicated editorials were sent to 1600 daily newspapers. rescinded the order as far as British troops were concerned,
Radio scripts went to 750 local radio stations. and three months later, when he raised the whole matter at
The
The all-out effort to
all-out effort induce hate
to induce hate had
had worked.
worked. As As the
the the Allies' Control Council, it was agreed that the policy
war ended, a packed meeting at Carnegie Hall (arranged by should be scrapped in all all zones.
Stout's Society) welcomed the demand by St St. Louis Post- Although this aspect of Morgenthau's directive ended
Despatch editor Joseph Pulitzer that punishing the guilty in failure, most of the instructions were successfully carried
would require the execution of approximately a million . out. The directive, which was kept highly secret for
and a half Germans. The guilty, "with no differentiation as months, ordered that numerous categories of industrial
to their degree of guilt" should be shot. plant should be uprooted and moved to Allied countries.
What could not be moved was to be destroyed. All courts,
schools and
and universities were to to be closed down and and not
THE OCCUPATION
THE OCCUPATION re-opened until their staffs were purged of all Nazi
personnel. Persons holding responsible positions in
In the early days of the Allied occupation of Germany, industry, commerce, agriculture, finance, and the media
brutality was the order of the day. German prisoners in were likewise to be arrested and and "assumed to be be Nazis
Nazis in
in
one PoW camp were deliberately kept on a starvation di~t
one diet the absence of any evidence to the contrary." The terms of
by the commandant. At another camp, Americans "used the directive so shocked the advisers of General Lucius D. D.
Nazi torture devices" to make prisoners confess misdeeds, Clay, deputy commander in chief for military government,
according 'to to Robert Murphy's Diplomat Among Warriors Warriors that one of them was despatched to Washington in an
(Doubleday,1964).
(Doubleday, 1964). effort to get the directive modified. Unsuccessful, the aide
Constantine FitzGibbon's book Denazification (Michael finally resigned. When in October, the military government
Joseph, 1969) reveals that was permitted to make it known, General Clay, himself a
Being devoted to the free free enterprise system, they looted indi indi- hard-liner, flew to Washington to urge modification of its
vidually. The kitbags of GIs GIs who returned from occupation duty in unworkable unworkable terms.
terms. This
This too ended in
too ended in failure.
failure.
Germany immediately after the war contained many curious items, At
At the
the Potsdam
Potsdam conference
conference in in July,
July, 1945,
1945, President
President
and some
some American
American officers
officers made
made small
small fortunes
fortunes at
at this time. They
They Truman denied that the controversial Morgenthau Plan
and this time.
also left a lot of half-American babies behind, for that is another Truman denied that the controversial Morgenthau Plan for
for
form of loot. All this is quite normal post-war practice and perhaps the pastoralisation of Germany was being put into effect.
taught the Germans one of the stem stern lessons that they had apparently Yet
Yet the
the results
results ofof Potsdam
Potsdam werewere there
there for
for all to see.
all to All
see. All
failed to learn after the First World War, namely, that it is excessively industry, finance and
industry, finance and scientific bodies were
scientific bodies were to be controlled
to be controlled
foolish to
foolish to fight
fight aa war and lose
war and lose it.
it. . b th
by . t All external
te al assets t were tto bbe seized.
. d I
A
A fairly
fairly senior
senior Public
Public Relations
Relations Officer
Officer attached
attached to
to aa very
very senior
senior y thee VIC
victors.
ors. All ex rn asse s were 0 e seIze . In n
US headquarters informed me in in mid-1946 that he had 'liberated' addition to the industrial plants in their zone, the Soviets
$180,OOO-worth
$180,000-worth of 'Nazi' property. With this loot he proposed to were to receive a bonus of 25%. 25% pillaged from the other
buy himself a TV station in the US. three zones. In return, they would hand over foodstuffs
In Brittany
In Brittany in in 1944
1944 aa GI was arrested
GI was arrested for
for rape,
rape, court-martialled
court-martialled and
and commodities
commodities lootedlooted from
from their zone. A
their zone. A wave
wave of of
and duly sentenced. It was generally agreed among the officers of
the court that such behaviour was best postponed until German suicides followed the Potsdam
until the GIs had German suicides followed the Potsdam agreements, more agreements, more
crossed
crossed the
the German border.
German border. than 2500 persons taking their lives within four days.
At Le Havre, in in March of 1946, I watched my luggage being When the occupation began, the daily food ration in
loaded onto the Liberty Ship that was transporting myself and other the American
the American zonezone was
was 900 to 1000
900 to 1000 calories,
calories, although
although an an
American officers
American officers home.
home. The
The temporary longshoremen (dockers
temporary longshoremen Ed.))
(dockers Ed. extra 200 calorie allowance was made toto "persecuted
were SS prisoners. In order to humiliate these arrogant racists, extra 200 calorie allowance was made "persecuted
American negro soldiers had been detailed to guard them. persons" (i.e. Jews). It was reported that more than half
Such stories could be, and indeed have been, endlessly the babies born in Berlin in August died of starvation. In
multiplied. November, 1945, Washington decided that food would be
(The hyper-race-consciousness of the Americans is sent to Germany to prevent starvation and disorder. The
rather curious in view of the fact that the war was sup- sup ration was raised to 1550 calories, but it fell to 1275 a few
posedly fought against 'racism'. This quote lends even months later, but even that was greater than the ration in
5
the
the British
British zone:
zone: aa basic
basic ration
ration of of 1048
1048 calories;
calories; just
justOctober,
October, and and Germans
Germans were were reduced
reduced to to following
following carts carts
enough to
enough to keep
keep anan idle
idle man
man alive.
alive. In
In the
the French
French zone,
zone, onondelivering
delivering coal coal in order to
in order to pick
pick up up any
any pieces
pieces thatthat fell
fell off.
off.
11 February 1946, "the
February 1946, the ration
ration was,
was, in
in theory,
theory, slightly
slightly higher
higher In Berlin two
In Berlin two hundred
hundred people people froze
froze to to death
death on on aa train.
train.
at
at 1075.
1075. The
The internees
internees atat Auschwitz
Auschwitz received
received aa higher
higher daily
daily Hoover reported at
Hoover reported atthe
the end
end of
ofFebruary
February 1947 1947 that
that Germany
Germany
ration than
ration than this
this until
until very
very near
near the
the end
end ofof the
the war.
war. Despite
Despite had
had sunk
sunk to to aa level
level of of existence
existence not not known
known in in Europe
Europe in in aa
the
the higher
higher rations given to
rations given to Jews
Jews in in post-war
post-war Germany,
Germany, aa hundred
hundred years.years. He He proposed
proposed large shipments of
large shipments of potatoes
potatoes
US
US Senator
Senator pointed
pointed outout that
that the
the Jews
Jews "do"do not
not desire
desire to
toand
and other
other foodstuffs
foodstuffs in order to
in order to stave
stave offoff famine.
famine. He He alsoalso
work,
work, but
but expect
expect to to be
be cared
cared for,
for, and
and complain
complain when
when suggested that
suggested that thethe dismantling
dismantling of of non-military
non-military factoriesfactories
things are not
things are not asas well
well done
done asas they
they think
think they
they should
should be.
be. Itshould
Itshould stop.
stop. The delusion that
The delusion that Germany
Germany could could be be reduced
reduced
isis doubtful
doubtful that
that any
any country
country would
would want
want these
these people
people as to
asto aa pastoral
pastoral state
state had
had to to be
be abandoned,
abandoned, despitedespite Morgenthau.
Morgenthau.
immigrants."
immigrants. " Europe
Europe couldcould notnot recover
recover without
without Germany.
Germany. Hoover's
Hoover's plan plan
The winter
The winter ofof 1946-47
1946-47 waswas one
one of
of the
the coldest
coldest inin history.
history. was
was eventually translated into
eventually translated into thethe Marshall
Marshall Aid Aid plan,
plan, but but
Schools
Schools were
were closed
closed down
down as as were
were three-quarters
three-quarters of of the
thenot
not without
without opposition
opposition from from Stout's
Stout's Society
Society for for the the
remaining
remaining industries
industries inin the
the British
British and
and American
American zones.
zones. NoNo Prevention of
Prevention of World
World War War IIIIII (still
(still in
in existence
existence in in 1947)
1947)
coal
coal had
had been
been delivered
delivered to to Germans
Germans for for heating
heating since
since which
which laidlaid onon aa national
national conference
conference to to attack
attack the the recon-
recon
struction
struction plan. plan. Mrs.
Mrs. Franklin
Franklin D. D. Roosevelt,
Roosevelt, sponsorsponsor of of
many Communist-front organisations, lent her her name to to
the
the project.
project. Morgenthau
Morgenthau himself himself participated
participated in in the the
conference, as did Albert Einstein and Sumner Welles.
Although the food programme got under way quite
rapidly, it took a little longer for enthusiasm for the dis- dis
mantling of German industry to wane. Even as Allied
planes were flying bulldozers into Berlin during the Soviet
blockade, German plants which could have made them
were being destroyed. Britain and France sometimes
openly aimed aimed at eliminating competition. Soap factories factories
were destroyed and Britain even blew up the Hamburg
harbour installations, in order to hamper future German
shipping rivalry. The French helped themselves to large large
parts of the Black Forest; the timber from this well-known
tourist attraction being used for pit-props. The vandalis-
ation of Germany did not stop until 1950.
But for more than a decade, up to 3,000,000 German
soldiers were held in captivity to work in the mines and
forests of Russia. It is estimated that more than one
million died. The conditions under which they laboured in
France were so harsh as to bring about United States inter inter-
vention, but nothing could be done about their condition
in the Soviet Union. Union. General Clay reported that German
prisoners returned by the Soviets needed from three to six
months to become fit fit for work. The public health branch
of the
of the military government
government pointed out that such prisoners
averaged sixteen pounds below below the minimum for for health,
and that half were suffering from
and from disease.
disease. In In 1947, Britain
Britain
was still using the labour of 350,000 Germans. France still
was
held 300,000 out of the 440,000 who had been turned
over to
over to them
them by the Americans.
Americans. The AmericansAmericans had freed
all their prisoners by by August 1947, and and in March, France,
yielding to to American pressure, pressure, began sending sending prisoners
home at
home at the
the rate
rate ofof 20,000
20,000 aa month.
month. Britain
Britain returned
returned the the
last of
last of its
its prisoners
prisoners in in July
July 1948.
1948. The The Soviets
Soviets claimed
claimed to to
have returned
have returned the the last
last ofof their
their military
military prisoners
prisoners in in 1955.
1955.
On 22
On 22 February
February 1949 1949 the New York Times reported
the New reported that that
of the
of the 800,000
800,000 GermanGerman civilians
civilians forcibly
forcibly takentaken to to thethe
Soviet Union
Soviet Union between
between 1944 1944 andand 1949,
1949, 400,000
400,000 had had died died
and 180,000
and 180,000 were were still
still in
in captivity.
captivity.
Although the
Although the Allies
Allies are
are no
no longer
longer pillaging
pillaging Germany
Germany of of
war-loot, West
war-loot, West Germany
Germany continues
continues to to this
this day
day to to paypay
financial reparation
financial reparation to to Jews
Jews andand even
even the the State
State of of Israel
Israel
itself, which
itself, which did did notnot comecome intointo existence
existence untiluntil 19481948 — -
three years
three years after
after thethe war war ended.
ended. TheseThese reparations
reparations are are
based on
based the theory
on the theory thatthatsixsix million
million JewsJews were
were exterminated
exterminated
by the
by the Nazis
Nazis — - aa theory
theory which
which has has beenbeen effectively
effectively
demolished by
demolished by the the· French
French writer writer Paul Paul Rassinier,
Rassinier,
Professor A.
Professor A. R.R. Butz
Butz of of Northwestern
Northwestern University,
University, Illinois,
Illinois,
Emotive
Emotive photograph
photograph of of Dachau
Dachau despatchees
despatchees on on train.
train. When
When 200
200 and
and many others. East Germany has never paid aa
Germans
Germans similarly
similarly froze
froze to
to death
death on
on aa train
train in
in 1947
1947no no such
such photo
photo·
many others. East Germany has never paid
graphs were
graphs were published.
published. penny.
penny.
6
 DE-NAZIFICATION
DENAZIFICATION
As stability and some sense of order returned to
Germany in the months after the occupation, the Allies
had to sooner or later sit down and formularise their
attitude towards, and treatment of, Nazis. It would not do
to just continue on the ad-hoc basis which had heretofore
prevailed, resulting as it did in tremendous variations in
prevailed,resulting
persecution of, or leniency towards, suspects.
On 8 August 1945, the four major powers had signed
the London Agreement, which set up the three categories
of crimes, and criminals, who would be tried at Niirnberg.
These categories were crimes against peace, war crimes,
and crimes against humanity; each with their own wide-
ranging 'definitions'.
But even these rather subjectively defined 'crimes'
could not possibly be stretched to include the hundreds of
thousands of ordinary German citizens whom the Allies
wished to punish. New 'crimes' had to be thought up, and
litigation procedures codified, in order to make sure that
nobody slipped through the net.
In April 1945, days before the official end of the war,
In
a directive (JCS 1067) had been issued to the American
Army chiefs in Germany by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in
Washington concerning the administration of the
occupation. Although the directive was issued by the
Washington military, its policies had been worked out by
the politicians, with the main contribution coming from
Henry Morgenthau.
Paragraph 6 of the directive concerned 'Denazification',
and ordered that the Nazi Party should be dissolved, all
Nazi laws repealed, all Nazis removed from public office
and all Nazi property confiscated. At the Potsdam con con-
ference in July 1945, this US military directive was given
three-power approval.
On 2 August 1945, the Official Gazette of the Control
Council, the Allies' joint occupation government, had
published an outline of the principles governing denazifi
denazifi-
cation. German education was to be taken taken over so as to
eliminate all Nazi ideas. The judicial system was to be
reorganised along 'democratic' lines, and the law would be
re-written so as to eliminate all forms of of discrimination
along lines of race, nationality or religion. 'Freedom of
speech' was to be restored, subject to the restrictions
necessary for maintaining military security.
On 20 October 1945, Control Council Proclamation
No.33 announced that German courts were being set up,
No.
whilst Proclamation No.No.4,
4, ten days later, pointed out that
these civil courts would not be allowed to try crimes com-
com
mitted against the Allies.
On 12 January 1946, the Control Council published a
directive concerning the "Removal from Office and from
Positions of Responsibility of Nazis and of Persons Hostile
to Allied Purposes". And on 12 October 1946 the Council
followed this up with an edict for "The Arrest and Punish-
Punish
ment of War Criminals, Nazis and Militarists, and the
Internment, Control and Surveillance of Potentially
Dangerous Germans". It was these two particular procla procla-
mations which paved the way for the denazification
tribunals which were to follow. The tribunals were basically
an attempt to overcome the problem of de-nazifying a
state where the Nazi Party was the state. To have purged
every single Nazi Party member from public office would
have meant that the entire state would grind to a standstill.
It would also raise the problem of what to do with the
millions upon millions of persons thus purged. There were
over 3%3V2 million ex-Nazis in the US Zone alone; they
7
could not all be interned or even deprived of their civil civil
rights: this would create an extremely dangerous situation
where the Allies
Allies would be one minute preaching self- self-
righteously about 'equality before the law' and next
minute creating a vast population of second-class citizens.
In the Soviet Zone, denazification played a subordinate
role to that of economic destruction. They were too busy
carting off tons and tons of German industrial equipment
-— they even stripped away hundreds of miles of railway
track -— to be much bothered with sorting out sheep from
goats. Their denazification programme was much more
elastic than the western Allies'. They were at liberty to
punish or employ any man they chose, without regard to
whether he was more than a 'nominal Nazi' or not. The
official figure given for dismissals from office is something
over half a million in the Soviet Zone, but like all Soviet
figures, this statistic is virtually meaningless. Any Nazis
who had been handed over to the Soviet authorities by
the United States were, of course, doubly suspect, since
they would be immediately suspected of being 'capitalist
agents' as well as 'Hitlerite thugs'. According to figures
issued in East Berlin, the Soviets' denazification programme
was largely completed by the end of 1945. The official
end to the programme was was not announced until 1948,
however, and it was not until 1950 that the Soviets ordered
the dissolution of the forced labour camps where those
purged under the scheme had been interned. Since that
time, the two German governments have carried on a
lengthy slanging match, each accusing the other of
employing former Nazis in in high places.
In the French Zone, there was more emphasis on
educating the Germans away from Nazism, rather than
chastising them. In certain French circles, the idea of
balkanising Germany back into duchies and statelets held
some support, since a dismembered Germany would present
no threat to the rest of Europe. But all in all, the French
were too concerned with their own internal problems in
the post-war years to bother very much with sorting out
Germany's. In any case, there was an underlying French
attitude of hostility and resentment towards the British
-and Americans which led to the build-up of a kind of
•and
cameraderie between the French soldiers
soldiers and the
the Germans.
Both countries
countries had suffered
suffered the humiliation of of defeat
defeat and
occupation, whilst the' Anglo-Saxons' had been consistently
the 'Anglo-Saxons'
victorious. All in all, the French were in no mood to
entangle themselves with Germany any more than was
necessary. This led to various accusations by the other
Allies that France was being 'soft' on the Nazis, but the
French attitude
attitude was due more
more toto lack
lack of concern rather
than sympathy for Nazism.
In order to bring at least the three Western occupation
administrations into line on this matter of denazification,
on 12 October 1946 the Control
Control Council issued
issued its Directive
No. 38, which laid down the categories to be used in the
denazification system. The entire German nation was to be
divided into five categories: major offenders, offenders,
lesser offenders, followers and persons exonerated. Each
classification was given a few paragraphs of definition,
and it was then up to the local administration to decide
who fell into which category.
In the British Zone only persons in positions of
authority were screened, but in the US Zone an attempt· attempt
was made to sift the entire adult population. An elaborate
questionnaire -— called a Fragebogen -— was issued to every
adult German in the American Zone. (In fact more
questionnaires were issued than there were adults: thirteen
million were issued to a population of about fo~en fourteen
million, of which many more than two million were
children.)
The operation was a bureaucrat's dream. At its height
the mere reading of the questionnaire required the full-
time work of 22,000 Germans. 545 tribunals, or Spruch-
kammern, in the US Zone were dealing with as many as
50,000 cases a month. The members of these tribunals,
normally three to each, were supposed to include a lawyer,
but there were not enough 'denazified' lawyers to go
round. The other members of these courts were supposed
to be 'right-thinking', non-Nazi Germans, but there were
hardly enough of these to go round either, nor was it
for the Americans always to check these men's
possible for
credentials since so many documents had been de!;troyed
destroyed
during the war. The tribunals were so short of 'reliable'
Germans that they had to import German-speaking
American Jews to help out. One such was Henry Kissinger,
later to become the American Secretary of State. AA detailed
description of the conduct of the tribunals is published in
Forced to be Free by John D. Montgomery (U. (U. of Chicago
Press,1957):
Press, 1957):
There were no full public hearings; no rules of evidence governed
the presentation of testimony. All proceedings were "ex parte",
offering no
offering no opportunity
opportunity for
for "prosecution"
"prosecution" oror "defence".
"defence". Until
Until aa
candidate was cleared by these tribunals, he could not occupy any
position
position of importance, and
of importance, and so
so millions
millions of
of capable
capable and
and politically
politically
indifferent Germans had to remain idle or engage in ordinary labour
for an indefinite period.
The findings of these tribunals were followed either by
a pronouncement of innocence and discharge or by more
or less
less automatic sentences for those found guilty. Major-
Major
offenders received from two to ten years of forced labour,
confiscation of property, permanent loss of civil rights and
pensions plus restrictions on where they might live.
Offenders in the second category were given a maximum
of five years' forced labour. Minor offenders received
shorter sentences. Followers were, in general, fined. A A Wiener Library in London, providing a research centre for for
reliable' chart of Denazification statistics from the
fairly reliable
US Zone is reprinted in Hilberg, chapter II, Table 94.
There were few who failed to fill in the Fragebogen: it
was necessary to complete one in order to obtain a ration
card. Thus the alternative to submitting to the denazifi-
denazifi
cation system was starvation. The burden of proof was
reversed in the tribunals, i.e. it was the duty of the
defendant to prove that he should be in a lesser category.
In consequence of this practice, the tribunals were flooded
with semi-official character references issued by local
clergymen. These soon became known as Persilscheine
(Persil certificates) after the brand of soap flakes of the
same name. Secret denunciations and false accusations
were not uncommon, according to Professors Roth and
Wolff of Ohio State University, who published a study of
the tribunals in 1955. Thus a defendant could lose his job
or be incarcerated in an internment camp without even
knowing the origin and nature of the evidence which had
condemned
condemned him. him.
In 1950 General Lucius D. Clay, the head of the US
Military Government, transmitted to Washington a detailed
report on The Present State of Denazification. He revealed
that over 27% of the German population in his zone
(31,4 million people) fell into categories 1-4.
(3V& 1—4. In order to
somehow reduce this vast number of people who had to be
punished, an amnesty for for persons under the age of 27 was
announced. This was followed by another, known as the
Christmas Amnesty, which let off the hook those who
were disabled and those who were on low incomes. Clay
concluded by recommending that the denazification
process be phased out, due to increasing German resent- resent
88
ment towards these 'Star Chambers'.
Washington took the point, and by 1953 the tribunals
were a thing of the past. Instead the West German govern-
govern
ment took over the fight against Nazism, via the less-
obvious medium of propaganda. In In 1953 it set up the
Federal Centre for Service to the Homeland, as -aa result of
two conferences attended by sociologists, historians,
psychologists and philosophers. The purpose of the Centre-
Centre
was to combat anti-semitism, and to this end it sponsored
a large number of articles, pamphlets and supplements.
Most of these dealt with the history of the Jews, but some
were simply smear attacks on the 'extreme right-wing'
parties which were beginning to re-emerge in in Germany.
The Centre paid particular attention to the indoctrination
of school-children, and sponsored a supplement on the
Nazis' persecution of the Jews in the weekly magazine Das
Parlament, which is distributed to schools throughout the
country. 65,000 anti-Nazi wall posters were mailed out to
schools every year, and 40,000 school classes took part in
the Centre's annual Christmas competition on Jewish
history. Films were also used to spread the message, with
such titles as Concentration Camp Henchmen and The
People
People and
and Country
Country of
of Israel.
Israel But the
the Centre's major
major inter
inter-
national
national achievement
achievement has
has been
been the
the financing of The
financing of Final
The Final
Solution, an "authoritative" account of the "extermination
programme" by Gerald R. Reitlinger. One would have
thought that with so much 'evidence' of exterminations
available, the Centre would have been able to find an
historian to document this aspect of the war. Reitlinger is
an art-dealer and amateur artist who now lives near Rye in
Sussex.
Both the Federal and Lander (County) governments in
West Germany c9ntinue
continue to finance yet another agency for
combating anti-semitism, the Institute of Contemporary
History inin Munich. This operates very much like the
the study of Nazism and its "extermination programme".
The Institute regularly publishes research documents, and
in 1960 brought out the "diaries" of Rudolf Hoss, Hoss, the
Commandant of Auschwitz. The "diaries" originated from
behind the Iron Curtain; they had originally been published
by the Communist Polish Polish r~gime.
regime. The Institute also
provides information and assistance to individual Jews
claiming compensation from the Government, and to
prosecution counsel conducting war crimes cases. And like
the Federal Centre, the Institute provides teaching aids to
schools and polytechnics. It also publishes a quarterly
journal of research, the Vierteljahrshefte fur Zeitgeschichte
-— somewhat similar to to the Institute of Jewish Affairs'
Patterns of Prejudice.
So concerned was the Federal Government
Government over the
apparent re-emergence of anti-semitism in West Germany
during the late 1950s, that a full-scale investigation was
laid on to discover why the indoctrination programmes
operated by the Federal Centre and the Institute had not
worked. The government even went to the great lengths of
publishing a White Book on Antisemitic and Nazistic
Incidents in 1960. One of the more enlightening aspects of
this report was the revelation that two swastika-daubers
were discovered to have been Communists acting as
agents-provocateurs. The investigation revealed that tliey
they
were wearing Communist badges behind their lapels and
had recently been on a Young Communist camp in East
Germany.
In 1958 the West German government also set up a
Central Agency for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes, at
Ludwigsburg. The prime mover behind this agency for
tracking down any stray Nazis who may have been over over~
Niirnberg, B~1sen,
looked at Niimberg, Belsen, Dachau etc. was Eugeil Kogon,.
EugeriKogon,
author of several popular books on Nazi atrocities. The
Agency was responsible for bringing about the 1963
"Auschwitz" Trial, and proved so efficient at "Nazi-
hunting" that they even discovered that the first head of
the Agency was himself an ex-Nazi.
THE ROLE OF THE O.S.S. (CIA)
One participant in the promotion and administration of the
Niirnberg Trials which is often overlooked is the Office of Strategic
Services, later to become better known as the Central Intelligence
Agency -— the United States' secret service.
The origins of the OSS can be traced back to 1941, when
President Roosevelt appointed Colonel William "Wild Bill" Donovan
as director of a propaganda agency known as the Office of the Co Co-
ordinator of Information_
Information. The main function of the agency was to
steer American public opinion towards favouring joining in in the war
against Germany_
Germany. The OCI was staffed by prominent journalists and
authors, but policy was directed by James P_ P. Warburg, one of
Roosevelt's political ad"isers.
advisers. It was housed in in a government
building in Washington on the corner of 25th and E. Streets, which
had been up until then an experimental laboratory. The scientists
and their menagerie of animals for experimentation were hurriedly
evicted to make room for Donovan's organisation. This bizarre
episode allowed Nazi propagandists the opportunity of deriding the
OCI as consisting of "fifty professors, twenty monkeys, ten goats,
twelve guinea pigs, and a staff of Jewish scribblers."
But by 1942, with the war in full swing, the situation called for
for
a different kind of agency. A A more elaborate outfit was needed
which would not only direct public opinion at home, but would
undermine enemy morale through black· black propaganda and rumour
mongering. Donovan, despite his anti-British Irish Republican back-
back
ground, received vital advice and assistance from the British govern-
govern
ment, who had had decades of experience in foreign espionage work
with the Secret Service. Lord Mountbatten met Donovan in London
in June 1942, and showed him around all Britain's secret espionage
establishments. Vital secret equipment such as miniature radios was
handed over
handed over to the Americans.
to the Americans.
The same month, the OCI was revamped. Domestic propaganda
was to be handled by a new Office of War Information. Foreign
espionage and black propaganda was to be ·controlled
controlled by the Office
of Strategic Services under Donovan.
From the beginning, the OSS was able to obtain the services of
the wealthy and the famous. Its staff seemed to be predominantly
drawn from both the echelons of New York Jewish banking and
academic families and the New England (Gentile) jet-set. The staff
included:
included:
Arthur Goldberg, head of the OSS Labour Desk, later a US Supreme Court
judge and US Ambassador to the United Nations.
Junius Morgan, head of Morgan.
Morgan, Stanley & Co. merchant bankers.
bankers, who was
"of invaluable assistance in supervising the expenditure of OSS funds.
particularly 'unvouchered' funds."
Dr. Henry A. Murray of Harvard, who organised the OSS Assessment
School.
School, for analysing new recruits.
John Ford.
Ford, the famous film director, headed the OSS Field Photographic
Unit.
Unit.
Allen Dulles.
Dulles, diplomat and lawyer,
lawyer. later head of OSS in Switzerland.
Switzerland, later
head
head ofof CIA.
CIA.
Richard Helms.
Helms, head of OSS in occupied Germany.
Germany, later head of the CIA.
James B.B. Donovan.
Donovan, OSS General Counsel. After the war this Donovan (no
relation to "Wild Bill") was defence counsel for the Soviet master-spy Rudolf
Abel.
Abraham PolGlnsky.
Polonsky, on the staff of the Morale Operations Branch.
Branch, a Holly-
wood film dilector.
director, later cited as having Communist sympathies by a 1947
congressional committee.
Leonard Meeker.
Meeker, on the staff of the Research & & Analysis Branch.
Branch, exposed
in 1963
1953 by J. J. Edgar Hoover as as being a Communist. Subsequently fled to
Moscow.
Moscow, then Havana. Now teaches at a Canadian university.
Paul Sweezy, editor of the OSS London bulletin called European Political
Report; Sweezy was an open Marxist.
.Report;
Sidney Rubenstein, on the staff of the Counter-Intelligence
Counter-intelligence Branch in the
Far East. He was also an FBI agent and a Baltimore attorney.
Ralphe Bunche, an "African Affairs" specialist on the R&A Branch. Later
this negro Leftist professor helped set up the United Nations.
Walt Rostow.
Rostow, later to become President Lyndon Johnson's 'adviser" and
Johnson's'adviser'*
chairman of the National Security Council; planned USA's surrender in
Viet-Nam.
Viet-Nam.
Rabbi Nelson Gluck.
Gluck, OSS intelligence agent in Palestine.
Palestine, using bogus
archaeological explorations as as a front. Gluck was President of Cincinnati
Hebrew College after the War.
War_
Frank Wisner,
Wisner. OSS agent in Istanbul and Bucharest. A A prominent Wall
Street lawyer_
lawyer. Joined the staff of the London station of the CIA in the late
'60s. Committed suicide in
'50s. in 1966.
1965.
Richard Weil,
Weil. OSS liaison officer with Tito's forces in Yugoslavia. One ·ofof
the Macy (department store) family.
John Zuckerman.
Zuckerman, operated OSS Black Propaganda radio station in Far
John Birch.
Birch, OSS officer in China, killed whilst helPing
Far East.
helping Mao Tse Tung's
Communist bandits. Inexplicably promoted as a martyr of "anti-Communism"
by having an American supposedly right-wing society named after him.
Jane Foster-Zlatovski.
Foster-Zlatovski, OSS agent in Indonesia; indicted by a grand jury in
1947 for passing OSS secrets to the NKVD.
Herbert Marcuse.
Marcuse, the Communist lecturer and psychologist.
Robert Kempner.
Kempner, the Niimberg
Niirnberg prosecutor.
Hans Hirschfeld.
Hirschfeld, later to become Willy Brandt's press aide; named in a
1961 US espionage case as a Soviet agent.
Many rich corporations were only too glad glad to 'loan' their
executives to the OSS. The Secret Intelligence Branch (which was a
particular haven for Communists, liberals and Lincoln Brigaders) was was
headed by a vice-president of International Railways of Central
America (the corporate twin of the United Fruit Company).
The Morale Operations Branch, which employed so many left-
wing Hollywood Jewish script-writers, was directed by the vice-
president of an Ohio steel corporation.
The Special Operations Branch, which maintained liaison with
Communist partisans throughout the world, was successively com- com
manded by two New York business lawyers and two Pennsylvania
investment bankers.
investment
The OSS Commander in Cairo was the vice-president of a Boston
bank.
bank.
The J. Walter Thompson organisation supplied: the Chief of the
OSS Planning Staff, the head of Morale Operations Branch in
London, the executive officer of OSS in Cairo, and a black
propaganda specialist in Casablanca.
Standard Oil provided officers to spy on Axis oil shipments in in
neutral countries. Paramount Pictures provided foreign currency for for
espionage purposes. The Goldman, Sachs banking firm handled the
payment of two million francs to finance Algerian terrorist groups.
The OSS agents were on extremely friendly terms with Com- Com
munist partisans throughout the world. The OSS gave decisive aid
and assistance to Mao Tse Tung in China, Ho Chi Minh in Viet-Nam,
Tito in Yugoslavia and sundry lesser-known bandits in Eastern
Europe.
In·
In fact, one OSS agent, Beverly Bowie, an an assistant editor of
National Geographic, was the first OSS man to reach Bucharest after
the German withdrawal
withdrawal inin 1944. Other
Other American officers arrived to
find Bowie already installed as an 'adviser'
'advi$er' to the newly-formed
Roumanian cabinet. Bowie explained, "Before they vote on any- any
thing, they ask me what I think. I go into a trance and figure out
what Franklin D. Ro.osevelt
Roosevelt would do, then give 'em the answer.
They pass all my laws unanimously. I never thought running a
country was so easy."
In
In lesser capacities the OSS staff roll read like an excerpt from
the Social Register, with names like Ryan, DuPont, Vanderbilt,
Roosevelt, Morgan, Mellon, Guest and Tolstoy. It was this aspect of
the OSS which enabled the newspapers to have a field day with the
organisation's initials, with headlines like "Oh, So Secret" and "Oh,
So Social". Columnist
Columnist Drew Pearson commented that that the staff was
mostly made up of "Wall Street bankers".
One of the prime functions of the OSS was that undertaken by
the Morale Operations Branch. The mission of the MO was black
propaganda; distributing bogus newspapers and military orders from
funds,
within the ranks of the enemy, operating clandestine radio trans- trans
mitters purporting to be· be enemy stations, and starting rumours in in
Axis-occupied territory.
A
A particularly relevant facet of the OSS operations was that they
had enlisted the co-operation of the Jewish Agency in Palestine
(which was really the unofficial Israeli government at at that time). The
Jewish Agency, on account of its extensive and elaborate contacts
with Jews in Europe, including those in in Nazi-occupied territory, was
able to undertake many important missions for the OSS, particularly
in the Balkans, Slovakia and Hungary.
Holly Towards the end of the war, the staff of Eisenhower's Psycho- Psycho
logical Warfare Branch was drawn largely from the OSS, since there
were so many Jewish psychologists on the payroll. The OSS also
acted in close concert with the War Crimes Branch, in the collation
of 'evidence'.
of 'evidence'.
OSS staff members were also very prominent on the prosecution
staff of the trials, especially in the early stages. InIn fact the Chief
Prosecutor at the Dachau Trials, "Jack Taylor" was himself an OSS
agent who had been captured and interned during the War, at Leising
in Vienna. Donovan himself was appointed a deputy prosecutor
in
under Jackson, but as the preparations for the trial went ahead
Donovan began to have personal doubts about the wisdom of. the
entire concept of the trials.
Fabian von Schlabrendorff, a member of the German anti-Nazi
resistance during the war, and a close friend of Donovan's, writes in. in
The Secret War Against Hitler (Hodder & & Stoughton, 1966):
Knowing that I was a jurist.
jurist, and familiar with my role within the anti-
Hitler resistance.
resistance, he wanted to get my professional opinion and asked me to
9
come to Nuremberg to look at the draft of the indictment against the accused
Nazi leaders. I accepted that invitation, and spent some time carefully studying
the lengthy draft Donovan gave me. After going over the document word by
word, I set down my professional opinion rejecting the entire indictment on
four counts:
1) It used retroactive laws -— precisely the kind of method we had come to
consider one of Hitler's most repugnant and unlawful acts. No law against so-
called "crimes against humanity" had been in existence at ai the time the
defendants had committed the offences they stood accused of at Nuremberg.
(The same argument I found out later, was advanced by the late Senator
ltobert
Robert Taft as one reason for his rejecting the Nuremberg trials.)
2) The indictment was based upon Anglo-Saxon trial law, with which the
defendants were completely unfamiliar, and which had no validity in German
legal custom.
legal
3) The accusations dealt exclusively with offences against Allied citizens.
Justice, however, demands that no such discrimination be made -— all human
beings, no matter of what nationality, who have been victims of the Nazis
should have been included.
4) Contrary to every basic juristic rule, the accusers in this case were also the
judges. An old proverb says: "Only God can help him whose accuser is is also his
judge."
After reading
reading my
my memorandum on the draft Donovan was was more than
than ever
convinced that he had been rightright in
in questioning the wisdom of the trials. He
began to search for ways of shortening and limiting the proceedings as much as
possible. He finally hit upon the idea of having Goring assume all responsibility
for what had happened in the Third Reich, so that Goring alone would be
indicted, as the representative of Hitler. In this way, the trial would have been
over in the shortest possible time, with the conviction, sentencing and
execution of Goring
Goring by the
the Allies ...
. . .
When Donovan asked me what I thought about the chances of persuading
Goring to assume all responsibility for the policies of the Third Reich and
plead guilty, I advised him to wear full uniform and all the medals he had ever
received for that visit to Goring in prison. I also urged him to appeal to what- what
ever was left of Goring's sense of officer's honour, making it plain at the same
time that his life was forfeit in any case.
I was not mistaken in my appraisal of Goring. After returning from his
visit in Goring's cell, Donovan informed me that the latter was willing to co- co
operate. The Allies, however, most certainly were not, as as Donovan soon found
out when he submitted his plan to Chief Prosecutor Jackson. The idea of
seeing their carefully prepared, mammoth trial going down the drain did not
appeal to the Allied officials, who were looking forward to months in the spot- spot
light while the case against the accused Nazis was being presented to the world.
When I next saw Donovan, he was shaking with anger and frustration after
what had evidently been a stormy session with with Chief Prosecutor Jackson. He
told me
me that
that he was resigning from his his post as deputy prosecutor because he BUDD
BUDD SCHULBERG
SCHULBERG
did not
not wish to
to be in any way way connected withwith the coming trials; he had had He was
was O.S.S. officer in charge of photographic and film
film "evidence"
become thoroughly convinced that they were
become were legally
legally and politically unsound. at. Nurnberg
Niirnberg and a well-known dramatist and sensationalist film-
He also suggested it would be wise for me to get out of Nuremberg at once -—
advice I lost no time in following. Years later in New York, Donovan told me producer -— rather an appropriate occupation, considering the origins
that he was more than ever convinced that history would justify his decision of much of the Niirnberg
Nurnberg "evidence ". Schulberg had also written a
"evidence".
to walk out of the Nuremberg trials. novel-
novel — What Makes Sammy Run?-inRun? — in 1941, about a "smart little
We have included this excerpt in some length, because it appears
We Yid" crook by the name of Sammy Glick. Schulberg received a
to be
be the only real
real clue which goes some way towards explaining the military award for
for his efforts at Niirnberg,
Nurnberg, according to the US
rather rapid demise of both Donovan and the OSS in 1945. Donovan Negro newspaper supplement, "Tuesday" magazine (August 1972).
had shown himself to be politically unreliable, no matter what his
abilities as an espionage expert might be. He had to go.
go. was one Sol Levitas, who had worked with Trotsky during the
On 28 September 1945, the OSS was offi<;iallyofficially and rapidly Bolshevik coup in 1917, but had had to flee from Stalin's purges in
wound up with a farewell staff dinner at the Riverside Skating Rink 1923.
in Washington. For a time, Donovan returned to his New York law
in Amongst Levitas's "boys", as he liked to call
call them, were Melvin
practice, but insisted on voicing his opinions on the threat of Com-
Com J. Lasky; an ex-Trotskyist from New York City College, Daniel Bell;
munism rather too loudly. He He was packed off into the political a professor at
at Columbia University, and Irving Brown; who became
wilderness as US Ambassador to Thailand. The debilitating Asian Lovestone's right-hand man in the European trade union operation.
climate
climate waswas too
too much
much for
for Donovan.
Donovan. He He suffered
suffered a
a series
series of
of strokes
strokes The New Leader claimed to be be independent, but in 1949 it it
and died in 1958. The fullfull story of the OSS, particularly its support carried a piece by Allen Dulles, advocating a commission of internal
for 'left-wing*
'left-wing' bandits throughout the world, is told in great detail inin security to examine subversive influences in the US. It will be
ass by R. Harris Smith (U. of Cal., 1972).
OSS recalled that Dulles had been head of the key Berne OSS station
But Washington had by no means scrapped the idea of a national during the war, which channelled soso many "atrocity" stories out of_
of
intelligence organisation; they had merely cleared the way for a Nazi-occupied territory to the West. It was he too who liaised with
bigger and better agency than the OSS, under less eccentric leader- leader Wilhelm Hottl, the assistant of Eichmann's who was probably an
ship than Donovan's. The new Central Intelligence Agency was set Allied agent. Dulles later became head of the CIA. After the appear-
appear
up officially in June 1947, this time under governmental, rather than ance of Dulles's articles (which was rather like one of the chiefs of
military, control. But the CIA was staffed mostly mostly. by ex-OSS for the New Statesman about MI5 policy!) the magazine
MI5 writing for
employees, particularly the East Coast Jewish academics and Leftists suddenly started appearing in a much more expensive format.
who had been so prominent in in the earlier organisation. Anthony Crosland and Dennis Healey (an (an ex-Communist), both
One such remarkable operator was Jay Lovestone (real name prominent
prominent British politicians, wrote regular articles forfor the two
Jacob Liebstein), who during the war had switched literally overnight magazines. Healey was in fact London correspondent for the New
from being leader of orie of America's Trotskyist parties, to working Leader.
Leader.
secretly as anan OSS agent in in Europe. He.He had been instrumental in During the 1950s, the Leftists at New Leader had a field day in
raising funds from America's huge trades unions (the AFL-CIO) to Europe, with seemingly endless sources of funds. In In 1948, Melvin
finance the setting up of unions in in Europe. As the Allied armies Lasky was 'lent' by the New Leader to the US Military Government
advanced, Lovestone's men followed as political commissars, trying in Berlin to set up a parallel German magazine, Der Monat. In
in In 1950
to make sure that the 'liberated' workers were provided with trade Lasky chaired anan enormous meeting at the Titania Theatre inin the US
union and political leaders acceptable to Washington. Many of these Zone of Berlin, where it was decided to launch the Congress for
leaders were themselves refugees from Nazi Germany, who had Cultural Freedom, a body whose purpose was to "defend freedom
ended up· up' in
in London. They even published a magazine, called and democracy". The man chosen to head the permanent secretariat
Socialist Commentary, which has now become the semi-official of the Congress was an official of the American Military Government,
mouthpiece of the 'right' wing of the Labour Party. Michael Josselson. The Congress was lavishly financed, supposedly
. Lovestone al"o recruited. his political c01Dmissars
also recruited commissars from New from Jay Lovestone's union funds. It soon began to organise political
York, where another group of ~migr~se'migr^s published a similar magazine seminars and student exchanges. It was involved in the setting up of
to Socialist Commentary; the New Leader. Officially, New Leader the International Student Conference
Conference at Leiden in the Netherlands.
was the political voice of the American Federation of Labor/Congress In 1953, the CCF launched yet another magazine, Encounter, under
of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO for short; the American the editorship of Irving Kristol, another of Levitas's New Leader
version of the TUC). Its guiding spirit, editor and business manager proteg~s,
proteges, and an ex-Lovestonite. The international political seminars
10

were organised by Melvin Lasky, Michael Josselson and Daniel Bell. Bell.
Anthony Crosland and Hugh Gaitskell, the leader of the Labour
Party during the 1950s, both played an active role in in these seminars.
In 1967, Michael
In Michael Josselson
Josselson admitted that
that he
he had
had for
for 17
17 years been
been
channelling CIA money into the CCF. NinetyNinety per cent of the finance
finance
of the
of the International
International Student
Student Conference
Conference had
had come
come from
from the
the CIA.
CIA.
The New Leader had also been receiving regular CIA
The New CIA subsidies
through a front organisation — - the J.
J. M.
M. Kaplan Foundation.
Foundation. After
Ramparts magazine, and in the New York
these revelations, in Ramparts York Times,
the CCF
the CCF changed its name to the International Association for
Cultural Freedom. Michael Josselson was switched from being head
of the organisation to being 'consultant*.
of 'consultant'. A new financial benefactor
was located in the form of the Ford Foundation. And the new
Director was none other than Shepard Stone.
Shepard Stone was was yet another mysterious distributor of large large
funds who moved in in high government circles. In Willy Brandt's
biography, he he is described as Brandt's "closest American friend".
Brandt even left his cabinet meetings, when Premier, to greet Stone.
In May 1948, as a political aide with the US Military Government
in Berlin, Stone organised a huge conference at The Hague which
launched the European Movement. 750 top people were flown in, in,
lodged and entertained for a week at the expense of the organisers.
Stone's link man in in Holland was one Joseph Retinger, an elderly
Polish diplomat who had finally come to rest at the court of Prince
Bernhard. In was set up in
In 1949, a parallel organisation was in the USUS- —
the American Committee on United Europe. The leaders of this
organisation were openly advertised in the New York Times as
including General Donovan, the recently-retired head of the OSS,
George Marshall, the US Secretary of State, General Lucius D. Clay,
chief of the US Military Government in in Germany, Allen Dulles, the
rising star of the CIA, and Tom Braden, the head of the CIA's CIA's
'Department of Dirty Tricks'. Dulles became vice-chairman of the
ACUE. Braden was was 'employed' as its executive director. InIn 1954 the
ACUE launched a youth campaign under Cord Meyer Jr., who is
ACUE
now CIA chief in London. The ACUE was merely a conduit for
passing CIA fundsfunds to the nascent European Movement. Their
subsidies comprised almost half the European Movement's total
budget. Virtually all of the European Movement's Youth Campaign
financing came from the CIA. Secretary of the Youth Campaign was
Maurice Foley, later a Labour MP and Minister in Charge of the
Secret Service. Foley's son is an ardent supporter of the IRA. The
current (1976) director of the European Movement in Britain is
Ernest Wistrich, whose wife is a prominent London councillor.
Stone and Retinger were also involved in the setting up in 1954
of the-
the Bilderberg Group, an international cabal of business tycoons,
bankers and politicians. The group meets every year at a secret venue
and got its name from the De Bilderberg Hotel at Oosterbeek in
Holland, where the very first meeting took place. Dennis Healey has has
been one of the most regular attenders from Britain, and it was at
the 1957 meeting in Fiuggi, Italy, that he first met Shepard Stone,
who was by that time a prominent department head of the Ford
Foundation. Stone agreed that the Foundation would finance, to the
tune of $150,000,
{5150,000, Healey's pet-scheme, the Institute of Strategic
Studies. Nowadays, Stone describes himself as Berlin Director of the
Aspen (Colorado) Institute for Humanistic Studies, which in 1976
acted as go-between in the takeover of the Obseruer
Observer newspaper by
the Atlantic Richfield Oil Company. Allen Dulles has also attended
Bilderberg meetings. However the subject of the Bilderberg Group is
worth an entire book in itself, so we can no more than scratch the
surface
surface here.
here.
BELSEN
The very first trial of 'war criminals' after the Allied
victory was not the IMT, but the trial of the staff of
Belsen, by a British military court at Liineberg. The
principal defendant was SS Captain Josef Kramer (the
"Beast of Belsen") whose trial was conducted during the
autumn of 1945, and concluded in November 1945, just
as the IMT was beginning. Kramer was hanged in December
1945.
1945.
We are fortunate in having access to Kramer's lengthy
first statement, which he made under British interrogation.
The importance of this statement lies in the fact that it
was
was made during the brief period just after the German
defeat, when the Germans had still not realised that the
Allies
Allies were serious in pursuing the 'extermination' charge.
11
--
The Germans were still expecting that any time soon, the
Allies would 'come clean' and admit that the whole
extermination story had been just another example of war war-
time propaganda, similar to the World
World War I stories about
the "Belgian baby with no hands" and the "factory which which
made soap from human flesh".
Kramer's first statement displayed little of the courtroom
logic which was to become apparent in in the behaviour of
of
certain Niirnberg
Niimberg defendants, who were prepared to admit
that "gas-chambers-existed-but-they-had-nothing-to-do-with-
"gas-chambers-existed-but-they-had-nothing.to-do-with-
it" — ~ourt and endeavour to extricate
- just to placate the court
themselves from aa very difficult situation.
sitiiation. For to have
denied the existence of gas-chambers would have been to
raison d'etre
challenge the very raison d 'etre of the court, and thereby
risk a heavier sentence for such intolerable contempt of
court.
court.
Kramer's story was in complete accord with objective
investigations undertaken after the dust had settled, such
as Professor Butz's masterpiece of research The Hoax of
the Twentieth Century. Kramer agreed that there were
the
high death rates at many concentration camps, but this
was due to overcrowding and the rapid spread of typhus.
He agreed that there had been crematoria at all the camps,
but these were to facilitate the hygienic disposal of
diseased corpses. He He denied that there had ever been
'extermination chambers' at Auschwitz-Birkenau where he
had previously been camp Commander: '
in Auschwitz
I have heard of the allegations of former prisoners in
referring to a gas chamber there, the mass executions and whippings,
the cruelty of the guards employed, and that all all this took place
in my presence or with my knowledge. All I can say is that it
either in
is untrue from beginning to end.
However, after Kramer had been further interrogated,
tune, and was now willing to agree that
he changed his time,
had-in
there had in fact been a gas chamber at Auschwitz, but
He 'explained' that
that he had not been responsible for it. He
he had
he had told
told lies the
the first
first time
time because
because he
he had
had been
been sworn
to secrecy. However, neither he nor his lawyers managed
to explain why it should be necessary for him to remain
secretive about something which was being spewed forth
from every newspaper and radio station in the world.
For further details on this highly suspicious about-face,
the reader is referred to the Butz book, where the two
contradictory statements are reproduced in Appendix D.
An interesting description of the behaviour of the
British soldiers at Belsen is given in Leonard Mosley's
Report from Germany (1945):
The British soldiers . . . beat the SS guards and set them to
collecting the bodies of the dead, keeping them always at the double
. . When one of them dropped to the ground with exhaustion, he
. ..
was beaten with a rifle-butt. When another stopped for a break, he
was kicked until he ran again, or prodded with a bayonet, to the
accompaniment of lewd shouts and laughs. When one tried to
escape, or disobeyed orders, he was shot.
THE INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL (IMT)
The propaganda work of the Writers' War Board, the
Office of War Information and the Office of Strategic
Services was throughout the war co-ordinated towards one
definite objective. They hoped to so orchestrate the media
into a hymn of hate against Germany that genuine public
opinion would be swept along by the tide, and that by the
time Germany was defeated, there would be no public
qualms about the Allies taking bloody revenge. Unknown
to either the British or the American public, steps were
being taken quite early on in the war, to organise the
 The International Military Tribunal
official lynchings of the German leaders.
Churchill himself was more in favour of doing without
the formalities. He tended to favour simply taking the Nazi
leaders out early one morning, putting them against a wall
and despatching them. During the preliminary negotiations
to set up the IMT, he wrote a long aide-memo
aide-memoireire to Roose
Roose-
velt's 'adviser' on this particular question, Judge Samuel 1.
I.
Rosenman. Churchill wrote that a long trial would arouse
public reaction, and would look too much like a put-up
job. Churchill had some support at the White House, from
Secretary of State Hull and Treasury Secretary
Morgenthau. They too favoured the 'no-frills' treatment.
Oddly, this view was also held once by Robert Jackson,
who was to become the United States' ChiefChief Prosecutor at
at
Niirnberg. A profile of Jackson in Life magazine (28.5.45)
revealed that he had once warned against "the use of the
judicial process for non-judicial ends". No one knows why
Jackson came to change his mind, but he was certainly a
politically ambitious individual, and it may well be that
Roosevelt (or one of his 'advisers') was able to dangle a
political carrot in front of him. But it would appear that
his efforts were not sufficiently rewarded, for in the
August/September 1949 edition of the Canadian Bar
Review, he was again expressing doubts about the trial, in
an article entitled "Nuremberg in Retrospect".
Stalin too originally favoured the 'informal' approach to
revenge-taking. According to President Roosevelt's son
12
Elliott, writing in his book As As He Saw It (previously
published in Look, 1.10.46), Stalin first mooted the idea
at the Big Three's Teheran Conference in November 1943.
During a banquet at Teheran, Stalin tottered to his feet
(having consumed several bottles of 90% proof vodka) and
much to everyone's surprise proposed a toa&t toast to the
"swiftest possible justice for all Germany's war criminals-
criminals —
before a firing squad." He went on, "I drink to our unity
in despatching them as fast as we capture them, all of
them, and there must be at least 50,000 of them."
Churchill, apparently, was rather sceptical about the
feasibility of this proposal. "The British people," he
declared, "will never stand for such mass murder!" (Pre- (Pre
sumably it was only the Nazi leaders he wanted to put
before a firing squad.)
The American President attempted to take the heat out
of the exchange by intervening with what appears to be a
macabre joke: "Perhaps we should say that instead of
summarily executing 50,000 we should settle on a smaller
number. Shall we say 49,500?"
Stalin refused to let the subject drop, and turned to
Roosevelt Junior for his views. "Isn't the whole thing
pretty academic?" replied Elliott Roosevelt. "The soldiers
will settle the issue for most of those 50,000 in battle. And
I hope that not only those 50,000 will be taken care of,
but many hundreds of thousands of Nazis as well."
Up until this time there had only been vague pronounce-
ments made by the Allied powers and the governments-in-
exile that punishments would be sought. On 13 January
1942, the Allies had issued the Declaration of St. James
which spelt out their aims. And on 7 October 1942, they
set up the United Nations War Crimes Commission in
London. However it
London. it was not until after Teheran that the
Commission actually commenced operations; gathering
information regarding war crimes and suspects and carrying
out extensive investigations into the theory of law. It was
largely British-staffed. The first chairman was Sir Cecil
Hurst, the second was Lord Wright.
Churchill wanted the Nazi leaders given summary
executions. Stalin wanted a mass murder programme of
horrific proportions. It was only the Americans who were
really keen on the elaborate show-trial which was eventually
be brou~t
to be brought about. In August 1944, the American Joint
Chiefs of Staff considered their own programme for
dealing withwith war crimes, naturally from a military point of
view. Their proposals were approved by the Judge Advocate
General of the US Army and on 1 October 1944 a War
Crimes Branch of the military was set up in the Department
of the Judge Advocate General. This original War Crimes
Branch, headed by Brig. Gen. John M. Weir, with Col.
Melvin Purvis as his assistant, was responsible for handling
all war crimes matters for the State, War and Navy DepartDepart-
ments.
ments.
However, the army proposal did not survive for very
long, for its character had been rather traditional, in that it
contemplated merely the prosecution of persons who had
broken the accepted laws of war in the field, as laid down
by the Hague Convention. Under this scheme, offences
committed before the outbreak of war or acts by enemy
authorities against their own nationals would not come
within its scope. For example, all Nazi measures against
the German Jews would be outside the jurisdiction of such
aa trial.
Roosevelt made it clear that such parameters would be
much too restrictive. On 21 November 1944, he summoned
the Secretary for War, Stimson, and ordered that the Army
proposals should be scrapped. Two months later, in
January 1945, Roosevelt designated his Special Adviser
Judge Samuel I. Rosenman to be his personal representative
in discussions (;m
on war crimes matters. (Rosenman remained
Adyis~r' to the President even when Roosevelt
'Special Adviser'
died and was succeeded by Truman.)
Eventually, an agreement was reached which satisfied
the political criteria rather more than the Army's scheme
did. A meeting on 18 January 1945 between Stimson,
Rosenman and Attorney General Francis Biddle and others
resulted in general agreement on very much expanded
conceptions of war crimes to be tried. Even at this early
stage, the verdicts had already been decjded.decided. That same
month, Biddle prepared a brief for Roosevelt's participation
in the Yalta Conference, wherein he advised the President
"the chief German
that: "the German leaders are are well known and thethe
proof of their guilt will not offer great difficulties."
Astonishingly, Biddle himself, who was a prominent free- free
mason and whose main adviser was a Jew by the name of
Wechsler,
Wechsler, waswas later
later to
to sit
sit as
as aa judge at the
judge at main Niirnberg
the main Niirnberg Rosenman committee, it did not cease operations. In
trial.
trial.
Roosevelt's sudden death in 1945 prevented him from for the IMT, particularly the (most important) American part of the
seeing the war trial plans come to fruition. Instead it was IMT, until the Tribunal was able to set up adequate machinery of its
his successor Truman whowho approved
approved the final arrangements. own. In
In
In May
May 1945
1945 he appointed Robert
he appointed Robert H. Jackson, an
H. Jackson, an Associate
Associate thethe ordinary
Justice of the Supreme Court, to act as the United States' Army's
chief negotiator with foreign governments in the setting up
of
of the
the trials
trials -— and also to
and also to act
act as
as chief
chief US Prosecutor in
US Prosecutor in the
the US Army played a very significant role in
13
trials themselves! Although Jackson himself was a Gentile,
he had the 'assistance' of several Jewish advisers;
advisers, including
Sheldon Gluck, Harold Leventhal and Murray C. Bernays.
A
A key member of Jackson's London staff was Col. Murray C.
Bernays, who was one of the first people to have grappled with the
theoretical and practical problems involved in setting up war crimes
trials. After graduating from Harvard in 1915, he established a law
practice in New York City. He He was given a commission in the Army
in 1942, and in October 1943 he was made chief of the Special
Projects Branch, Personnel Division, Army General Staff. His major
responsibilities in this position were the preparation of plans for the
trials, and the efficient handling of the international negotiations
necessary for setting them up. Shortly after the appointment of
Jackson, Bernays was awarded the Legion of Merit for for his efforts.
The citation read in part:
Early recognising the need for a sound basis in dealing with the problem of
war criminals and war crimes, he formulated the basic concept of such a policy
and initiated timely and appropriate action which assured its adoption as the
foundation of national policy.
Bernays returned to the US in November 1945 and immediately
resigned from the Army, his task having been completed. Free from
Army restrictions, Bernays vented forth with his rather novel views
on the standard of justice the Germans were going to experience.
In an interview with some editors (who characterised him as "the
In
man behind the gavel") he answered questions as to "how the small
are going to be hooked":
fry are
"There are a good many Nazi criminals who will
"There will get off if the roundups
aren't conducted efficiently. But if we establish that the ss,
SS, for example, was
a criminal organisation, and that membership in it is evidence per Be se of
criminality, the Allies are going to get hold of a great many
many more criminals
in one swoop. You know, a lot of people here at home don't realise that we
are now the govemment
government of Germany in our zone and that no judicial system
can exist other than one we approve. We We are the law. If we we wanted to, for
instance, we could try Germans for crimes twenty, thirty, forty years old.
We'll be
We'll be too
too busy with
with the current crop of war
war criminals, though, to have
much time to look into
into ancient wrongdoings."
On 6 June 1945 Jackson made an interim report to the
President wherein he spelt out how the actual machinery
of the trial would operate. Curiously, much of the text of
this report appeared to be 'lifted' from an earlier book on
war crimes by the Soviet law professor Trainin, who was
himself later to help draw up the international protocol
agreement. George A. Finch, writing in the American
Journal of International Law quotes from Trainin's book:
In
In meting out punishment to the Axis war criminals, Russia
would not permit herself to be restricted by traditional legalisms.
The reason that no international law exists is that the powers of the
World want a united front against the Soviet Union. This is by no
means accidental. Its roots can be traced to the general character of
international relations during the period of imperialism.
(Just in passing, Finch also points out that much of the
United States' submissions to the United Nations founding
meeting at San Francisco in April 1945 was couched in the
same kind of style. The frequent use of terms such as
"Hitlerite organisations" and "Hitlerite leaders" in· in the
American documents does seem exceedingly odd, since
such idiosyncracies are usually only used by the Soviet
Union and other Communists.}
Communists.)
After the President had approved his outline plans for
Nurnberg,
Niirnberg, Jackson set off for London, where much of the
preliminary IMT work was to be done. It was here that
the plans for Niirnberg first became 'International' (if only
in name) for up until now, the United States had done all
the ground
ground work.
Although the US Army's War Crimes Branch (which was set up
in 1944 to plan the trials) was superceded by the 'more imaginative'
In fact, the War
War
Crimes Branch expanded, but in the direction of trials adminis-adminis
tration, rather than actual policy making. It functioned as an agency
In the early months of the IMT trial (and perhaps also later)
ordinary prosecution
prosecution staff,
staff, with
with the
the exception
exception of
of Jackson
Jackson
himself, was on the payroll of the Judge Advocate General (the US
legal department
Army's legal department which
which ran
ran the War Crimes
the War Crimes Branch).
Branch).
The Judge Advocate General's Department (JAG Dept.) of the
in the administration of post-
 large part of the country was under American constitutionality of the court. Another rule was .included
war Germany, since a large included
military control. The traditional role of the JAG Dept. had been the ft.! h
administration of military justice e.g. courts martial and related to the e
to the ~ect tat:
effect that: . ,
matters. However, during the war, the operations of the JAG Dept. The Tribunal shall not be bound by .te~hnlcal
technical rules of e~~ence.
evidence. It
It
had spread to cover many moremore aspects of military adop~ andapply,
military legal matters. It . shall adopt thegreatestpossl~leextent,.expedl~lo~an.d
and apply, to the greatest possible extent, expeditious and
even got involved
involved in litigations relating
relating to war
war production contracts.·
contracts. non-technical procedure, and shall submIt
non-technlcal submit any eVIdence
evidence whIch
which It
it
In May 1945, the Judge Advocate General, Major General Myron deems to have probative value.
In
C. Cramer, made a speech in which he declared that the pursuit and On 8 August 1945 1945, the London Agreement was signed
arraignment of Nazis was to tax to the utmost the capacity of the b'
by: ' . .
War Crimes Branch and become a major activity of the en~ireentire JAG y.
. Department, whose resources he pledged to Jackson. This was no France
France Robert Falco
vacuous promise, since the organisation headed by Cramer had much USSR Gen. I. T.
Gen. T. Nikitchenko
more substance in 1945 than that headed by Jackson. The 'main main USA .
USA Robert Jackson
contribution made by the War Crimes Branch to the work of the UK'
UK Sir William
William Jowett
Jackson team was in the field of personnel; recruiting.
recruiting prosecution
and defence lawyers, translators and administrative staff. Jackson announced that the Agreement was was the
It was this
this same War
War Crimes Branch which itself
itself administered the "solemn judgement of 23 governments representing 900
nightmarish "trials" at Dachau, where prisoners were beaten, kicked, million people." In fact the "Agreement" had been
starved and brutalised by Jewish-American jailers. The events which nothing more than
than. the rubber-stamping of Jackson's plans
took place at Dachau are discussed in detail in a later chapter, but
attention is
is drawn to those events here because
because it
it was the same War
War by the rest of the Allies. And just to make sure that the
Crimes Branch involved in both the Dachau and IMT trials; in the plans would be properly carried out, the same people who
former in a supervisory role, and in the latter in an administrative drew up the arrangements for Niirnberg promptly had
and
and supportive capacity. However, its administrative functions and themselves appointed as prosecutors and judges.
responsibilities at Niirnberg did not prevent the War
War Crimes Branch
from actually submitting evidence itself. For example, Document Nikitchenko and Falco became judges. Jackson was
2309-PS is a report drawn up by the War War Crimes Branch on con-
con American Chief Prosecutor, Fyfe was Deputy-Chiet
Deputy-Chief BritililP
British
ditions in
in the liberated Flossenbiirg camp. Document 2176-PS is a Prosecutor. Thus, virtually the same people were judges,
War Crimes report on Mauthausen.
War prosecution and court.
Early in 1946, the War Crimes. Branch had a new head -— Colonel Nikitchenko was the most candid of all. He admitted:
Mickey Marcus -— who later was to go go to Israel to fight for the
Haganah and to die in very mysterious circumstances. A A detailed We are
are dealing here with the chief war criminals who have already
profile of Marcus appears later in this book. been convicted and whose conviction has already been announced
by both the Moscow and Crimea declarations and by the heads of
The 'London Agreement', as it came to be known, was governments.
negotiated by representatives of all the Allied powers. The Tribunal, he thought, had only to carry out the just
These
These were:
were: punishment immediately. Nor was there any necessity, he
USSR
USSR Gen. I. T.Nikitchenko
Gen. T.Nikitchenko said,
Prof. A.
Prof. A. N.
N. Trainin
Trainin
to create the sort of fiction that the judge is a disinterested
France
France Robert
Robert Falco
Falco person who has no legal knowledge of what has happened before ...
...
Prof. Andr~
Prof. Andr6 Gros
Gros that would only lead to unnecessary delays.
UK Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe Up until now, no one had really bothered to actually
USA
USA Robert
Robert Jackson
Jackson draw up a list of those to be charged as war criminals.
There was some dispute over the detail of the Agree- Agree Early on in the war, the Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov
ment, which Jackson had tried to set before the represen- represen had
had written
written that "the whole
that "the whole of
of mankind
mankind knows
knows the
the names
names
tatives as a fait accompli. Gros, one of the French and the bloody crimes of the leaders of the cl;iminal criminal
representatives, was against including amongst the charges Hitlerite clique: Hitler, Goring, Hess, Hess, Gobbels, Ribbentrop
one of "waging aggressive war", as this might prove and Rosenberg." At Potsdam, the Soviets presented
embarrassing if anyone mentioned the Soviet invasion of Churchill and Truman with an expanded list of those they
Poland, or the abortive Anglo-French invasion of Norway. wanted charged. The list was accepted by both the British
Trainin (the Soviet professor whose books had made and Americans, although there were some British reser reser-
such an impression on Jackson that he had had to plagiarise vations about the inclusion of Gustav Krupp, the elderly -—
half of the content) was against the whole idea of a in in fact
fact senile
senile -— head
head of the German
of the German armaments
armaments firm.
firm. The
The
criminal trial: such a trial would per se be restricted by Soviets indicated they were open to suggestions for a
Trainin felt it would be
criminal law. Trainin be much less
less bothersome replacement! (Later, at the trial, the Americans suggested
just to have a plain, straightforward political trial -— after that if Krupp was too old, then his son Alfred could coul~ be
all they had been having those in his country for for twenty- charged instead!) Eventually it was this Soviet list of 26
five years without any problems! names which was was included in the
the indictment.
indictment. Three of the
the
Eventually the Soviets were allowed to redraft the 26 did not stand trial. Krupp was too ill to appear in court.
passage on aggressive war to read: Robert Ley committed suicide shortly before the trial was
Aggression or domination over other nations carried out by the to commence. Martin Bormann was never found, but was
European Axis inin violation of international laws and treaties. tried in
tried in absentia
absentia anyway.
anyway.
There waswas also some mild mild dissension from the the Soviets There were
were four main counts on the indictment:
indictment:
and the French over the charge of 'conspiracy', in relation 1. Conspiracy to wage aggressive war (involving the crimes
to the 'criminal organisations'. Such a charge was foreign in 2, 3 and 4);
to both their legal systems. But Jackson pointed out the 2. Crimes against peace (starting the war);
great use in America of laws against criminal organisations, 3. War War Crimes (wanton destruction, ill-treatment of PoWs
such as the laws against the Ku Klux Klan. Fyfe backed etc.),
him up, quoting the British precedent of laws to outlaw 4. Crimes against humanity (extermination, persecution
the Thug cult in imperial India. etc.).
Just in case any of the defendants or their defence Whenever the actual indictment was circulated amongst
counsel might start to get too clever and actually start the Chief Prosecutors in October 1945, it was discovered
arguing back against the prosecution, the Agreement con- con that somehow the Soviet-occupied Baltic nations of
tained a clause whereby no one could challenge the Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were stated to be Soviet
14
territory. On October 6, Jackson had to write a formal family and was educated, like so many other 'progressives'
letter to all the other Prosecutors, many of whom had at Baliol College, Oxford. He was Conservative MP for
expressed reservations about this clause: Liverpool, West Derby from 1922 to 1954. From 1942
. This language is proposed by Russia and is accepted to avoid until 1945 he was Solicitor General, when he became
delay
delay which would be occasioned by insistence on an alteration in Attorney General. From 1951 to 1954 he was Home
the text.
text. Secretary in Churchill's second administration. He became
Presumably the same also applied to that part of the Lord Kilmuir in 1962, and during the latter years of his
indictment which accused the Germans of the Katyn life devoted much of his time to the Wolfson Foundation,
massacre, which everybody knew had been committed by of which
which he was
was a trustee. He died in 1967.
the Soviets.
the Soviets. Clement Freud went on to
Clement to make a name for himself in
The'indictments were read out to the accused in Berlin
The indictments were a variety of fields. He became a well-known TV personality,
on 18/19 October 1945, and a month later the trial comedian, chef and writer during the 1960s. He is perhaps
opened officially at the Palace of Justice in Niirnberg. best-known for his role in dog-food advertisements. He He is
There were two judges from each country, as follows: also a director and trustee of the London Playboy Club. In
UK Lord Justice Lawrence (President) 1973 he became Liberal MP for Isle of Ely.
Sir William
William Norman Birkett Griffith-Jones is currently a High Court judge. Elwyn-
USA Attorney General Francis Biddle Jones was Labour MP for Newham South (previously
Judge John J. Parker known as West Ham South, and previous to that, Plaistow)
France
France Prof.
Prof. Donnedieu
Donnedieu de Vabres
de Vabres from 1945 to 1974, when he was appointed Lord High
M. Ie Conseiller R. Fal.co
le Conseiller Falco Chancellor. He had previously served as Attorney General
USSR Maj.
Maj. Gen. I. Nikitchenko from 1964 to 1970. Although he himself is Welsh, his wife
Lt. Col. A.
Lt. Col. A. F. Volchkov
F. Volchkov has the very un-Welsh name of Pearl Binder.
The American
The American Prosecution team:
Prosecution team:
Peter Calvocoressi was educated at the ultra-liberal
Baliol College, Oxford, and did his his war service in RAF
Chief Prosecutor
Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson Intelligence. He stood as a Liberal candidate for Nuneaton
Executive
Executive Trial
Trial Counsel
Counsel Col. Robert G. Storey in the General Election of 1945. After the Niirnberg Trials
Thomas J. Dodd
Thomas
he wrote a rather woolly book, Nuremberg: the Facts, the
Associate Trial Counsel
Associate Trial Counsel Sidney S. Alderman Law and the Consequences (Chatto & Windus, 1947). He
Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor joined the staff of the notorious Royal Institute for Inter-
Inter
Col. John
Col. John H.
H. Amen
Amen
national Affairs (Chatham House) in 1949 and was
Ralph G.
G. Albrecht promoted to its governing Council in 1955. He He became
plus 16 Assistant Trial Reader in International Relations at Sussex University
Counsel including Def./Pros. around the same time that Shawcross was appointed
Liaison
Liaison Officer
Officer Dr. Robert Kempner. Chancellor. He has has served on the councils of the the Ford
The American documentary evidence was assembled by: Foundation-financed Institute of Strategic Studies, the
Capt. Seymour Krieger ) proto-Marxist Institute of Race Relations, the United
Lt. Brady Bryson
Lt. Brady Bryson ) extermination Nations sub-committee on the Prevention of Discrimin-Discrimin
extermination
Lt. Frederick Felton ) evidence ation and Protection of Minorities, Amnesty International,
evidence
Sgt. Isaac Stone ) the North London Conciliation Committee of the
and the
Hans
Hans Nathan
Nathan ) Race Relations Board. He He is currently (1976) Chief
Dr.
Dr. Jacob
Jacob Robinson
Robinson ) Executive of Penguin Books.
Lt. Kenyon The Chief of the French prosecution team was M.
) Germanisation
Germanisation Francois de Menthon, and the Soviet Chief Prosecutor was
Dr. Derenberg
Dr. Jacoby ~ evidence (U Series)
(U General
General R.R. A.
A. Rudenko.
Rudenko.
The defence
The defence counsel were as
counsel were as follows:
follows:
The British prosecution team consisted of:
Goring Otto Stahmer
Otto
Chief Prosecutor Attorney General Sir
Sir Hartley Hess
Hess Gunther von Rohrscheidt
Shawcross Ribbentrop Fritz Sauter
Deputy Chief Prosecutor Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe Keitel
Keitel Otto
Otto Nelte
Nelte
Leading Counsel G. D. Roberts Kaltenbrunner Kurt Kauffmann
Junior Counsel
Junior Counsel Lt.Coi. J. M.
Lt.Col. J. M. G. Griffith-Jones
G. Griffith-Jones Rosenberg Alfred Thoma
Alfred Thoma
'Col.
Col. H. J. Phillimore, Maj. F. Frank Alfred Seidl
Elwyn-Jones, Mr. Airey Neave, Frick
Frick Otto Pannenbecker
Maj. J. Harcourt-Barrington, Streicher Hans Marx
Wing Comm. Peter Calvocoressi Funk
Funk Fritz Sauter
Liaison Officer Clement Freud.
Clement Schacht
Schacht Rudolf
Rudolf Dix
Dix
Shawcross was made a Peer in 1959. He has been Chair-
Chair Donitz
Donitz Otto Kranzb~hler
Kranzbohler
man of the Press Council since 1974 and Chancellor
man Chancellor of Raeder Walter Siemens
Walter
Sussex University at Brighton since 1965. He He donated von Schirach
von Fritz Sauter
many of his private papers to the library at Sussex, Sauckel Robert Servatius
including some relating to the Niirnberg Trials. Shawcross Jodi
Jodl Franz
Franz Exner
Exner
has held a host of positions on the board of directors of Bormann
Bormann Friedrich Bergold
many prominent businesses, including London & Conti Conti- von Papen Egon Kubuschok
nental Bankers, Shell, EMI, Rank-Hovis-McDougall, Times Seyss-Inquart GuStav
Gustav Steinbauer
Newspapers, Thames Television, Morgan Guaranty Trust Speer Hans Fliischner
Flaschner
Co., and Hawker Siddeley. von
von Neurath
Neurath Otto von Ludinghausen
Liidinghausen
David Maxwell-Fyfe was from a part-Jewish Scottish Fritszche
Fritszche Heinz Fritz
15
 Reich
Reich Cabinet
Cabinet Egon
Egon Kubuschok
Kubuschok newspapers
newspapers such such as as the
the onesones whichwhich carried
carried General
General
Leadership Corps
Leadership Corps Robert
Robert Servatius
Servatius Marshall's
Marshall's final
final warwar report,
report, saying
saying that
that there
there hadhad been
been no no
SS & SD
SS&SD Ludwig
Ludwig Babel
Babel collusion
collusion or orliaison
liaison between
between Germany
Germanyand andJapan
Japan over Pearl
overPearl
SA
SA Georg
Georg Bohm
Bohm Harbour.
Harbour. (This
(This was was an an essential
essential piecepiece of of evidence
evidence on on the
the
Gestapo
Gestapo Rudolf
Rudolf Merkel
Merkel "conspiracy to
"conspiracy to wage
wagewar"
war" charge.)
charge.)
General
General Staff
Staff Franz
Franz Exner
Exner Neither
Neither werewere the the defence
defence allowed
allowed to to obtain
obtain aa book book
Throughout the
Throughout the trials,
trials, the
the defence
defence counsel
counsel were
were treated
treated which
which had recently been published by the Roumanian
had recently been published by the Roumanian
as inferiors.
as inferiors. The
The entire
entire defence
defence staff
staff had
had to
to work
work in in one
one ambassador
ambassador to to the
the USSR,
USSR, Gafencu,
Gafencu, which which dealt
dealt with
with the the
dimly-lit room,
dimly-lit room, under
under the
the constant
constant surveillance
surveillance ofof American
American ~olot?v-Ribbentrop
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. pact. This.
This book
book was was freely
freely available
available
Military Police.
Military Police. Often
Often they
they were
were harrassed
harrassed by by Military
Military min SWltzerland,
Switzerland, yet yet was
was unobtamable
unobtainable in in Germany.
Germany. In In fact
fact
Police guarding
Police guarding thethe entrance
entrance to to the
the court
court room.
room. On On one
one when
when Fritzche
Fritzche mentioned
mentioned this this pact
pact during
during his his verbal
verbal
occasion the
occasion the guards
guards arrested
arrested one
one of
of the
the defence
defence counsel
counsel evidence,
evidence, the the Soviet
Soviet prosecutor
prosecutor said said he
he had
had never
never heard
heard of of
and brought
and brought him
him before army
army superiors,
superiors, charging
charginghim with
him with it!
it!
having behaved
having behaved withwith "inadequate respect respect to to Allied
Allied If
If the
the defence
defence wantedwanted to to introduce
introduce any any witnesses
witnesses or or
authority". On
authority". On another
another occasion
occasion Prof.
Prof. Metzger,
Metzger, Neurath's
Neurath's documentary
documentary evidence,
evidence, they had had to explain
explain the relevance
relevance
counsel, was
counsel, was suddenly
suddenly arrested
arrested in
in Niirnberg,
Niirnberg, andand spent
spent six
six of
of both
both before
before theythey could
could be be admitted
admitted by by the court.
court. OfOf 19 19
weeks in in the same
same jail
jail as
as his
his client without learning
learning the witnesses
witnesses called
called by by JodI's
Jodl's defence, only 44 were were allowed.
allowed.
charges against him. Another
Another member of of the defence team When
When one one potential
potential witness,
witness, aa Col.Col. Sottmann,
Sottmann, telegraphed
was refused admission to the court after the lunch-break,
was his
his willingness to give give evidence
evidence about the British plans plans to
and had
and had to apologise
apologise profusely
profusely to the tribunal for for keeping invade Norway, he was was promptly arrested.
arrested.
the court waiting. Although both the defence counsel and Certain defence submissions
submissions were were refused
refused outright.
outright. No No
the defendants were given proper meals each day, far far in challenges
challenges to the court's authority were allowed. The court
excess of the ordinary German civilian ration, there was refused
refused to hear hear any defence argument argument based based on on the impli-
impli
not enough crockery or cutlery in the dining room. cations
cations of the Versailles Treaty. No mention was was permitted
permitted
But the most disturbing shortage of all all was
was the shortage
shortage of the Soviet's treatment of German prisoners-of-war. A
of copies of prosecution evidence. At the start of the trial, question was was refused which asked why only 5000 out of
the defence had been assured by Kempner, their Liaison 123,000 German soldiers soldiers captured at Stalingrad
Stalingrad were ever ever
Officer, that they would receive copies of these documents returned. Although the prosecution could expound at
in advance of their presentation in court. Throughout the great length about the bombardment of Warsaw and
trial, the defence continually pointed out that they were Rotterdam, the defence were forbidden any mention of
failing to receive these vital documents. When they did
failing the horrific Dresden bombings. No No mention could be made
manage to get hold of copies, they were delivered to the of the uprootings and expulsions of German settlers from
defence's room at 10.30, half an hour after the court had Eastern
Eastern Europe, or of Soviet atrocities committed against
started, and there was inevitably only half a dozen copies German PoWs. The defence were not allowed to introduce
to share amongst fifty-odd defence staff and defendants. a vital piece of evidence, the British Army manual of
The
The prosecution continually apologised for this this oversight, Irregular Warfare, which advocated categories of execution
and blamed it it on lack of photo-copying facilities.
facilities. However, which the Germans had been charged with. Only once once was
this did not prevent them doling out 250 250 copies of one the Tu quoque argument (thou also) allowed. This was in
document to the gaggle of press men outside the court, relation to submarine warfare, when Donitz and Raeder
while the defence staff had to make do with two! were permitted to show that they had used identical rules
The
The defence faced continual difficulties in collecting of attack to the Royal Navy.
any evidence at at all. The only publication they could freely freely Despite a rule rule to the contrary in in the IMT's
IMT's Standing
obtain
obtain was the US US Army propaganda newspaper Stars & Orders, the defendants were not allowed to cross-examine;
Stripes. They
They could not even get hold of American domestic domestic only their counsel could do do this, and and if they were were not
competent that was just just too bad.
Throughout the trial, the defence
Throughout defence were were treated
treated as
naughty children who were continually getting getting inin the
the way.
way.
The transcript
The transcript is is littered
littered with
with admonitions
admonitions from from Lawrence
to move along
to along withwith thethe case,
case, paypay attention, stop stop talking
about irrelevant
about irrelevant matters
matters (like
(like Versailles
Versailles and and Allied
Allied war war
crimes). Whenever
crimes). Whenever the the defence
defence complained
complained about about beingbeing
treated differently
treated differently from from the the prosecution,
prosecution, Lawrence
Lawrence told told
them that
them that this
this waswas because
because of of "technical
"technical difficulties"
difficulties" in in
the areas
the areas of
of transportation,
transportation, translation
translation and and duplication.
duplication.
The defence
The defence were were allowed
allowed to to send
send outout questionnaires
questionnaires
to German
to German PoWs PoWs in in Allied
Allied camps,
camps, but but few
few of of these
these werewere
returned. None
returned. None came came backback from from French
French camps,
camps, and and
only two
only two from
from Soviet
Soviet ones.
ones. ButBut these
these were
were full
full of
of stock
stock
phrases such
phrases such as as "Hitlerite
"Hitlerite aggressors",
aggressors", "Fascist
"Fascist criminals"
criminals"
and "the
and "the peaceloving
peaceloving USSR".USSR".
Some of
Some of thethe court's
court's peculiar
peculiar legallegal practices
practices were were
outrageous in
outrageous in the
the extreme.
extreme. WhenWhen the the Soviet
Soviet lawyer
lawyer Andrei
Andrei
Vyshinsky (who
Vyshinsky (who had had runrun thethe 1920s
1920s Soviet
Soviet purge
purge trials)
trials)
visited the
visited the court,
court, he he was
was permitted
permittedto to sit
sit on
on the
the prosecution
prosecution
benches. During
benches. During the the trial,
trial, an
an elaborate
elaborate banquet
banquet was was held
held inin
his honour,
his honour, attended
attended by by all
all the
the judges
judges andand the
the prosecution
prosecution
Around-the-clock
Around-the-clock watches
watches were
were kept
kept on
on all
allprisoners
prisoners at
at Niirnberg
Nurnberg staff.
staff.
16
16
 Hess with Colonel John Amen, interrogation chief at Nurnberg
Niirnberg

When the news came through to NfuThe NiiiThe toast at the to be attacked. The Gauleiter of Niirnberg was Julius
banquet, which all the judges joined -in, 'in, was "To the Streicher, whose newspaper Der Sturmer was the most
German prisoners, may they all be hanged!" This is quoted virulently anti-Semitic publication
pUblication ever published. It was
in Judge Francis Biddle's essay on Niirnberg in American here that the Niirnberg laws against Jewish inter-marriage
No. 5, August 1962. Biddle also candidly were first promulgated. And it was at Niirnberg that Hitler
Heritage, Vol. XII, No.5,
admits, on the preceding page 70, that the American judges had held some of his most spectacular political rallies. The
knowingly permitted the Soviet prosecutor to admit false Soviets had wanted to hold the trial in the capital, Berlin,
evidence against the defendants.
defendants, but the rest of the Allies had doubts about being allowed
::stone
stone ueaa··.)
Lieaa ".) free movement around that city, as it was in Soviet hands.
The defendant~
defendants themselves were kept under extremely In any case, it was doubtful if there was a big enough
tight security measures throughout the trials. They were building still standing in Berlin. In the end, the indictment
housed in separate cells, with one guard to each cell day hearing was held in Berlin, and the trial proper in N iirnberg.
Niirnberg.
and night. They were stripped of their military insignia, The American documentary evidence at Niirnberg
Numberg was
and none of their ranks was officially recognised. Since gathered by the OSS and the War Crimes Branch, and
the Hague convention prohibited solitary confinement for forwarded to the prosecution staff for sifting. As each
prisoners-of-war, the defendants were not regarded as concentration camp was liberated, a team of investigators
soldiers! They were not allowed to talk to each other would be one of the first detachments to be sent in.
during exercise periods or in the showers; the only time Some of the American documents arrived at Niirnberg·
Niirnberg
they could exchange words (those who were on speaking via an extremely roundabout route. The series with L
terms, that is) was in the dock. The courtroom was on the prefixes all came from the Yivo -— the Jewish Scientific
second floor of the Palace of Justice in Niirnberg. The Institute -— in New York. Apparently, the documents had
defendants were taken by lift from the cells and then had been 'discovered' in the Rosenberg ministry in Berlin by
to pass through an elaborate series of check-points, with a Sergeant Szajko Frydman of the US 82nd Airborne
each guard calling ahead to the next. Division. Frydman was a staff member of Yivo (both
There is no doubt that Niirnberg was deliberately selected before and after the war) so he promptly appropriated the
as the venue for the trial because it was a special place in documents for the Institute.
Nazi history. The Niirnberg synagogue was one of the first The British also had their own War Crimes Investigation
17
Unit,. which worked with the Special Operations Executive
Unit,
(SOE), the British equivalent of the OSS.
Altogether over 100,000 documents were screened for
possible use at Niirnberg.
Niimberg. The documents on the SS alone
filled six freight cars. To cope with this mammoth task of
.sifting
sifting the Americans employed a staff of 600; as many as
the other three powers put together. About 10,000
documents were finally numbered, with a view to using in
evidence, but in the event, only 4,000 were submitted to
the IMT. After the trial, the original documents were
deposited at the International Court at The Hague.
As the trial was conducted simultaneously in four
languages, the transcript had to be quadruplicated. There
were five million pages in the type-written record, which
was later printed inin 24-volumes, under the imprint of the
IMT. There is also another English language edition of the
transcript, published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
Both editions devote additional volumes to to aa document
index, but in each case this is rather arbitrarily drawn up.
For example, it is impossible to find indexed any mention
of allegations of Soviet war crimes, which were raised
several times during the trial (although these suggestions
were rapidly ruled out of order by·the
by the Tribunal).
The IMT held 403 open sessions, with 33 witnesses
appearing for the prosecution, and 61 (in addition to the
defendants themselves) for the defence.
The only really detailed book about Niirnberg to be
published so far is Eugene Davidson's Trial of the Germans
(Macmillan, New York 1966). This is an American book,
and is not readily available in Europe.
A list of 400 or so so prominent Nazi 'war criminals',
together with their fates, appears in chapter 11 of Hilberg.
There is also a hard-to-get Black Book, published by the
Black Book Committee in New York, which gives a more Robert
Robert H. Jackson
H. Jackson
detailed listing. The most up to date lists of Nazis and their
present whereabouts are kept in Jewish Holocaust libraries The letter in question was supposed to have been one of
and research centres in London, Vienna and Israel. several written by Fritsch to the Baroness von Schutzbar-
Milchlingen, and confiscated by the Allies after the war.
Later, the Baroness testified that she had never even seen
JACKSON'S OPENING
OPENING SPEECH this particular letter before. In the National Archives in
Washington there are photocopies of all the other Fritsch
Legalistic sleight-of-hand was the order of the day at letters except for this one. And although the letter gets a
Niimberg. During the opening speech of Chief Prosecutor
Niirnberg. mention on page 483 of the English edition of William
Robert Jackson, mention was made of a letter said to have Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, nowhere is the
been written by Baron Werner von Fritsch, the pre-war letter discussed in the German edition. German readers
Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces. would not be so easily taken in. They would probably
According to Jackson, the letter revealed that Fritsch that the so-called Fritsch letter was aa direct contra-
know that contra
was wholeheartedly in favour of Hitler's aims: diction of everything Fritsch had ever said or done.
It is very strange that so many people should regard the future
It According to Fabian von Schlabrendorff's Secret War
with growing apprehension, in in spite of the Fuhrer's indisputable Against Hitler, Fritsch was the one military commander
successes in the past ...
. . . Soon after the War (World War I)
I) I came to
whom the anti-Nazis looked up to. Originally they had
the conclusion that we should have to be victorious in three battles,
if Germany was again to be powerful: hoped that he would be able to stand up against Hitler, but
1. the battle against the working class; Hitler has won this one; they were wrong. In 1938 the Gestapo hatched a plot
2. against the Catholic Church, perhaps better expressed Ultra- against the 'old-guard' in the Army. First of all they got rid
montanism; and of Field Marshal von Blomberg, at that time Minister of
3. against the Jews.
We are in the midst of these battles, and the one against the Jews
We
War, by revealing that his new wife was a prostitute. Next
is the most
most difficult. they produced documents and affidavits alleging that
Jackson read out the statement as if he was actually Fritsch had had a homosexual relationship with an ex-
quoting from the letter, but he was in fact reading from a convict by the name of Schmidt, and was regularly paying
"type-written copy"; no original letter was ever produced, Schmidt blackmail money. Fritsch was brow-beaten into
either at Niimberg
Niirnberg or later. Lord Justice Lawrence refused resigning.
to admit the item as evidence, saying that a document that It was not until some time later that a police investigation
could not be produced would be ignored. But the damage revealed that the 'evidence' had been a complete Gestapo
was already done, thanks to Jackson's deliberate trickery forgery right from the beginning. The case was brought
and fabrication. The "letter" had been read out in open before a Military High Court, and during the cross-
court, and was fully minuted in the Tribunal record, and examination Schmidt got entangled in his own contra- contra
given a document number (1947-PS). dictions and finally admitted that the story was false. The
18
court completely cleared Fritsch's name. Schmidt was
disposed of soon afterwards by the Gestapo, without any
formalities such as a trial. The complete transcript of the
Military High Court investigation is published in the
appendix of the Schlabrendorff book.
But Fritsch was a broken man. He
He lived for only another
year and a half, killed in action during a battle in the
Polish campaign. Little was Fritsch to know that he was
to be persecuted and defamed even long after his death, by
the "defenders of democracy".
PSYCHOLOGY OF
PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENDANTS
DEFENDANTS
Probably one of the most accurate accounts of the
behaviour and attitudes of .the the Niirnberg defendants is
Numberg prison psychologist Dr. G. ~.
provided by the Niirnberg M.
Gilbert in his book Numberg
Niirnberg Diary. Most of the matenal
material
consists of summaries of conversations the defendants had
in prison, either with each other or with Gilbert.
The IMT defendants were arrested shortly after the
German capitulation in May 1945, imprisoned separatelr,
separately,
and interrogated and subjected to propaganda for SIX six
months prior to the opening of the IMT trial in November,
when they met each other for the first time since the
surrender (and in some cases for the first time ever). There
are four particularly important observations which can be
drawn from an objective study of Gilbert's notes.
First, not surprisingly, all (except Kaltenbrunner) had
developed essentially the same defence strategy: they
would duck the issue of whether or not the gas chambers
existed, but would disclaim any responsibility themselves
existed
w~ all the fault of Hitler and Himmler (both con-
-— it was con
veniently dead).
Secondly, it would appear that several of the defendants
had themselves been taken in by the Allied propaganda to
which they had been subjected. Few of them had had any
connection with camps during the war, and consequently
could offer no viable alternative explanation to the
harrowing film scenes of 'extermination victims' being
shovelled up by bulldozers.
Thirdly, it is apparent that several of the defendants ,had
had
calculated that the Allies were not completely senous serious
about carrying out executions and long-term prison
sentences. The trial was certainly a novelty, and the
defendants were wellwell aware that
that there was considerable
public hostility to the trials, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Many must have calculated that their immediate objective
should be to say or do whatever seemed necessary to
survive the transient wave of post-war vengeance hysteria.
There would always be a time in the future, when the dust
had settled, when they could set the record straight, they
figured.
Lastly, the extermination of the Jews was only one of
many serious accusations involved at Niimberg.
Niirnberg. Today, the
'extermination' charge may appear to have been the
central theme, but in 1945, the principle accusations in the
minds of almost everybody concerned responsibilities for
"waging a war of aggression" -— so-called "Crimes Against
Peace".
With the preceding four observations in mind, we can
see that the behaviour of the defendants during the trial
was rather what one would expect from such an arbitrary
collection of Nazis, technocrats, army officers and
abund~?e of mutual
politicians. They displayed an abundance
recrimination, buck-passing and back-bltmg
back-biting -— hardly
surprising under the circumstances.
19
THE DEFENDANTS
THE DEFENDANTS
Fritzsche
The "crimes" which Hans Fritzsche was alleged to have
committed, were essentially no different from those of the
Allies. He had been a prominent Nazi propagandist, and
had successfully helped to keep up morale against over-over
whelming odds.
The Soviets claimed to have a transcript of one of his
radio broadcasts, but every time Fritzsche's defence
a
counsel asked them for a copy, they refused, even though
they referred to it continuously throughout the trial. They
"confession~' which he had signed whilst
also produced a "confession"
being interrogated at the Lubjanka prison in in Moscow.
Fritzsche said that he had signed this so that he could be
executed and have the interrogation and solitary confine-
confine
ment over and done with.
Fritzsche had been an able propagandist. During the war,
when the British press ran a series of smear stories on
German massacres of Czechs, Fritzsche had the sense to
immediately organise a visit to the alleged site for a party
of foreign (neutral) press correspondents. When the
Germans were accused of stealing a Polish icon, again
Fritzsche organised a trip for the foreign press to see it
intact.
intact.
Fritzsche, the wily Public Relations man was able to
pull it off at Niimberg.
Niirnberg. He was acquitted. He was not to
get off scot-free however. A A year later he was arraigned
before a Denazification Tribunal
before Tribunal where he was sentenced
to nine years' hard labour and loss of civil rights. He
He was
pardoned in 1950 and died three years later of cancer.
Sauckel
One of the most startling sentences handed down at
Niimberg
Niirnberg was the death penalty given to Ernst Sauckel,
the head of the German labour programme. His superior,
Speer, was "let off" with a twenty-year sentence.
Sauckel had been found guilty of doing exactly what
the Allies did after the war -— using forced labour in
factories. Under Allied Control Law No.3
No. 3 of 17 February
1946, all German males from 14 to 65 and women from
15 to 50 were subject to compulsory labour, the penalty
being imprisonment and withdrawal of ration cards. This
was exactly the "crime" which the IMT declared inhuman
when it was carried out by the Germans. The USSR was
the most draconian of the Allies in the use use of forced
labour. Literally millions of Germans were rounded up
after the occupation and shipped off to Russia, where
many remained until well into the 1950s. France was
given hundreds of thousands of German PoWs captured by
the Americans, and their physical condition became so
bad that the US Army authorities had to intervene. Britain
and the United States also made use of such prisoners,
although their welfare was markedly better than their
counterparts' in France and the USSR.
Perhaps this was the most blatant hypocrisy of all at
Niimberg,
Niirnberg, for
for the Allies were trying Sauckel and company
for a practice which the Allies themselves were carrying
out right outside the front door of the Palace of Justice~
Justice,
and throughout Germany.
Seyss-Inquart
One of the principal pieces of Niirnberg evidence against
Artur Seyss-Inquart was a telegram allegedly sent by him
instructing the German army to take over Austria "to
preserve order". Seyss-Inquart strenuously denied that he
had sent it, and in fact there was no real evidence that he almost certain death when
when returned to thethe Soviet Union.
Union.
did. There was little, if any, evidence that JodI
Jodl had infringed
In fact as Davidson admits, "Nothing he did inin Austria, the laws of war. HeHe had simply fought on the wrong side.
months as Reich Governor of
where he served for fourteen months But according to Davidson, "Shawcross was intent on
Vienna, or later in Poland, would have marked him as one hanging not only Keitel and JodI,
Jodl, Donitz and Raeder, but
of
of the
the chief
chief war
war criminals."
criminals." the German Army and Navy Navy.. ... . It seems unlikely that
Even when Seyss-Inquart was moved to Holland as JodI
Jodl would have been sentenced to death by a later court.
Reichkommisar, he still played no part in decision-making; (Other generals) were all released in the space of a few
he simply carried out orders from Berlin. It was true that Jodl had the misfortune to be tried too early."
years. JodI
he passed on orders for the execution of hostages, but such In Jodl's widow applied to a Munich de-
In fact, in 1953 JodI's de
executions were permitted by the rules of war. nazification tribunal to have JodIJodl posthumously rehabili
rehabili-
Rather predictably, Seyss-Inquart was sentenced to tated. The tribunal heard that one of the Niimberg
Niirnberg judges,
death and executed along with his colleagues. de Fabres, had said in 1949 that the verdict against JodI Jodl
had
had been
been a mistake. The
a mistake. The de-nazification tribunal found
de-nazification tribunal found
Frank
Frank him not guilty of all the main NiimbergNiirnberg charges, and
Hans Frank was
Hans Frank Governor General
was Governor General of
of what
what was
was left
left of
of annulled the German penalties against his property.
dismembered Poland -— a tract of territory some two-fifths
its pre-war area.
its Donitz
Donitz
Frank lived in grand style at his Governor's palace at Admiral Karl Donitz, the chief of the German Navy, was
Cracow, consuming vast quantities of food while the rest the only defendant who was allowed to use the tu quoque
of Europe, including Germany, starved. He surrounded (thou also) argument as a defence. His counsel was allowed
of'
himself with priceless works of art, looted from all over to point out that the Germans had used precisely the same
the occupied territories. Himmler maintained a file on the tactics against enemy shipping as the Allies. In In fact, as
Franks' "endless corruption", but little was ever done Davidson notes, the testimony that undoubtedly saved
about
about it.
it. Donitz's life at Niimberg
Niirnberg came from the US US Admiral
As most of the "extermination programmes" were Nimitz and from the British Admiralty. Nimitz replied to
alleged to have taken place in Poland, it was inevitable that a questionnaire sent to him by the lawyers representing
Frank would carry the blame for them. He realised this Raeder and Donitz, where he admitted that throughout
himself. But even he was startled by the bizarreness of the the Pacific, American submarines had been ordered to
allegations, as they were spelled out in in the Niirnberg attack without warning any enemy vessel, save hospital
courtroom.
courtroom. ships. The British Admiralty admitted that their ships had
Frank joined his coUeagues
colleagues on the gallows. been ordered to sink at sight any German ship passing
through the Skagerrak.
JodI
Jodl German witnesses testified that German naval regulations
Colonel General
Colonel Jodl was one of the best-loved had not permitted such policies until well into the war.
General Alfred JodI
of German generals. His defence counsel, Prof. Franz Also a former German naval judge, Fritz Jackel, testified
Exner was a personal friend of his, who believed implicitly as to the German navy's strict military discipline: several
Jodl's impeccable character. Precious packages of sailors had been executed for rape and theft from Allied
in JodI's
cigarettes would arrive at the Niirnberg jail,jail, addressed to civilians.
"Our Dear JodI".
Jodl". American guards and officers would But Donitz had to be found guilty -— he had, after all,
present arms and salute him. The families of concentration become head of the the Reich on Hitler's death. In an effort
camp inmates, including Jews, would write to him, to scrape together some 'evidence' to back up the verdict,
offering to testify on his behalf. the tribunal actually blamed him for the fact that "his
Jodl's counsel asked for nineteen witnesses U-boats, few in number at the time, were fully prepared
Altogether JodI's
to be called, but the court only permitted four. One of the to wage war." This was indeed a most curious accusation
witnesses was Field Marshal Paulus, who had been wheeled to throw at any naval commander.
out by the Soviets especially for the trial. To courtroom Donitz was sentenced to ten years, and served ten years'years
observers, Paulus appeared to be under heavy psychological and twenty days in Spandau prison in Berlin.
pressure, no doubt due to the fact that he knew he faced
Raeder
Like most of the other servicemen on trial at Niimberg,
Niirnberg,
Erich Raeder, the original head ofthe
of the German Navy, could
not be directly connected with allegations of infringements
of the Hague Convention. He He had Jewish in-laws, and
consequently was not in the least anti-Semitic. Jews even
testified for him at Niimberg,
Niirnberg, saying how he had helped to
keep them out of internment camps. Raeder had also
intervened on behalf
behalf of Pastor Niemoller the anti-Nazi
leader interned at Buchenwald.
leader
The charges against Raeder were very curious indeed.
One of the accusations was that Raeder had encouraged
Japan to join in the war. Attempting to, or succeeding in,
the recruiting of allies was never defined as a war crime at
Niirnberg, yet here was Raeder charged with it! Indeed, it
was just as well that recruiting allies was not a crime, for
Arthur von Seyss-lnquart
Seyss-Inquart Alfred Jodi
Jodl both America and Britain had used all their powers to
20

Karl Donitz Joachim von Ribbentrop
persuade the USSR to breach its non-aggression pact with
Japan. It would seem that such persuasion was only
criminal if it was (a) successful (the Anglo-American
overtures were abject failures) and (b) German.
Raeder was also charged with passing on an order of
Hitler's that commandos should be shot. Strictly speaking,
this was not an infringement of the Hague Convention
Convention,
. there was no part of the Convention dealing
SInce
since with the'
subject. Those commandos who were shot were wearing
civilian clothes under their uniforms, and some were found
carrying orders to kill all prisoners. Some of the captured
commandos were provided with an ingenious device: two
guns under their armpits would fire when the commando's
arms were raised in surrender. The method of trussing
prisoners described in the commando handbook was also
somewhat less than gentlemanly: a noose was passed over
the head and around the neck of the prisoner so that every
time he stretched his legs he strangled himself a little more.
However, the commando handbook was not allowed as
evidence. The President of the Court reminded the defence
counsel that it
counsel that it was
was not
not the
the Allies who
who were
were onon trial.
trial.
In all the cases of execution of commandos, Raeder did
not give any specific orders himself, he simply passed on
Hitler's standing instructions for such cases.
Although Raeder was over 70, he was sentenced to life
imprisonment — - a sentence he begged the court to change
to shooting. His wife, who had committed no identifiable
was kept prisoner by the Soviets until September
crime, was
1949. Raeder was suddenly released in 1955.
He survived long enough to write his memoirs and to
He
attend a few ceremonies, including the dedication of the
German naval
German naval war
war memorial
memorial atat Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven in in 1957.
1957.
He died
He died soon
soon afterwards.
afterwards.
fool
fool anybody, especially the more wily Nazi leaders.
Goring had had one memorable row with him in 1944, and
had taken a swipe at him with his baton and derided his
pretentious 'von' in front
front of his name. "You champagne
peddler," Goring had shouted, "shut up!" Ribbentrop
dodged the blow and shouted back, "I am still the Foreign
Minister and my name is von Ribbentrop.
Ribbentrop.""
Ribbentrop's first
first reaction on being arrested as a war
criminal was one of feeling
feeling flattered.
flattered. When he was being
interrogated at the Ashcan (or Dustbin, as it was known to
British soldiers), the Allied collecting depot outside
Niirnberg, he vehemently maintained that he had been a
very important official in Hitler's government, and it was
only after the actual trial had started that he realised the
full implications of such vanity. He attempted to do an
about-face, and claim that in fact he had been very
unimportant, but it was too late. He was found guilty on
all four charges and hanged.
Frick
Besides the eccentric Hess, the only other defendant
in the Niirnberg dock who declined to take the witness
stand was Wilhelm Frick, the Nazi Minister of the Interior.
It had been Frick's duty to put into legal effect all the
Fuhrer's
Fiihrer's decrees, over a whole range of issues. What little
specific evidence there was against Frick at Niimberg
Niirnberg
revolved around his implementation of the various
euthanasia and racial segregation laws. It was not he who
carried out these policies, he was simply the clerk who
drew up the wording of the laws, in accordance with
Hitler's
Hitler's wishes.
wishes.
With the exception of his closing statement to the court,
Frick chose to remain silent throughout the trial. He told
his fellow
his defendant Fritzsche
fellow defendant that it
Fritzsche that it would
would be
be useless.
useless. He
He
explained to the prison psychologist that the tribunal was
on a totally different wavelength, and whatever he said or
did, he would still be sentenced to death.
Frick was proved right. He He was found guilty on all
except one count and was sentenced to hang.
Keitel
Keitel
Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, the chief of the German
High Command (OKW), held little respect amongst his
military colleagues. During the war, he had managed to
collect several rather disparaging nicknames, including
Nickesel (a toy donkey that nods its head) and La-keitel,
a pun on the word 'lackey'.
It was Keitel's servility which enabled him to last out
so many able men were relieved of their
the war, when so

Ribbentrop
Jo~chim Ribbentrop was one of the few Nazis to have
Joachim
been reasonably well known in Britain before the outbreak
- he had been German Ambassador to Britain since
of war —
1936.
The man was a snob of the first degree; he had added a
The
'von' to his surname inin 1925, and was almost universally
disliked amongst his colleagues in the Niirnberg dock for
his arrogance, conceit and incompetence. Although before
his
Jewish and partly-Jewish
the war, he had had a number of Jewish
friends, through his liquor importing business, he had
obligingly become an an anti-Semite when Hitler
Hitler promoted
Foreign Office. Of course,
him to be head of his war-time Foreign
his pr~gmatic attitudes and phoney sophistication did
his pragmatic did not Wilhelm Frick
Wilhelm Frick Wilhelm Keitel
Wilhelm Keitel
21
21
commands, or OJ;' even shot. But even though it was patently
obvious at Niimberg
Niirnberg that he had been "only carrying out
orders," Keitel was still held responsible for for his own
actions.
actions.
He had signed and issued many of Hitler's more
fanatical orders, such as those authorising the execution of
hostages, the murder of PoWs and the destruction of
villages. General von Falkenhorst, the German commander
in Norway, testified that he tried to save the lives of
British commandos captured at Stavanger, but that Keitel
had told him they had to be shot. The same thing
happened, he said, when Norwegian seamen were captured
trying to escape to England. According to another witness,
Keitel had supported the suggestion that captured Allied
bomber crews should be be executed.
In defence, Keitel tried to introduce the tu quoque
In
argument by exhibiting in evidence the British Handbook
of Instructions on How to Conduct Irregular Warfare. In In
this book, British commandos were told to "use any
weapons including broken bottles" in hand to hand
fighting with the emeny. The tribunal refused to allow the
handbook to be admitted. Keitel was sentenced to death,
which he meekly accepted. All he wanted from the court
was permission to be shot instead.
instead of hanged. This symbolic
token of a soldier's death was denied him.
him.
Schirach
Baldur von Schirach was an unlikely defendant at
Niirnberg. He was not even an ethnic German -— he was
three-quarters American. As head of the Hitler Youth,
he could not really be described as a war criminal at all,
since the Hitler Youth was not a military, or even para-para
military formation. It was just a politicised version of the
Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, probably very similar in
style to the present-day (Communist-run) Woodcraft Folk.
Attempts at Niimberg
Niirnberg to prove otherwise proved rather
fruitless. It was alleged that Schirach desired to militarise
the Hitler Youth when he had said, "We are the future
soldiers." In fact this was a mis-translation; what he had
really said was, "We are the militant shapers of the future."
The Soviet prosecution team produced an affidavit
which claimed that teams of Hitler Youth
Youth members had
shot-up a village in Russia and killed several Russian
children. But this ludicrous, indeed bizarre, accusation did
not get very far, even in the unreal Alice-in-Wonderland
world of Niirnberg.
Nonetheless, the court found Schirach guilty of crimes
against humanity, and sentenced him to twenty years'
imprisonment. His main crime, the tribunal said, had been
the "misleading of youth".
He served his sentence to its very minute before being
released in 1966.
Funk
Walter Emanuel Funk was
Walter was rather
rather a late starter in
in the
Nazi movement, but was introduced to Hitler early on and
consequently rose rapidly in the party ranks. In 1938 he
succeeded Schacht as Minister of Economics, and in 1939
as President of the Reichsbank.
Funk, who by profession was a financial journalist, was
very much a pragmatic minister in Hitler's government: he
always agreed that the Fuhrer
Fiihrer was right. What economic
policies of his own he did have were garbled
garbled and erratic.
erratic.
This may have had something to do with his personality;
Funk was
was both
both a homosexual and an alcoholic.
The charges against Funk at Niirnberg alleged that as
22
22
head of the Reichsbank, he had received and assayed tons
of valuables taken from gassed Jews. The prosecution
stated that from 1942 onwards, the SS had deposited at
the Reichsbank tons of gold teeth, spectacle frames,
platinum and gold rings, diamonds, watches, earrings,
cutlery, foreign·
foreign currency and stocks and bonds. The
valuables were allegedly used to finance the various
industrial enterprises set up at concentration camps. An
affidavit was produced from one· one Emil Publ,
Puhl, Funk's
second-in-command at the bank, who declared that he had
told Funk all about the deposits and that Funk had even
seen the valuables when he visited the vaults. However,
Puhl was produced as a witness, he formally retracted
when Publ
the affidavit, denying that either he or Funk had known
the contents of the SS deposit boxes. In an effort to shore
up their fast collapsing case, the prosecution then produced
Oswald Pohl (no relation to Puhl) head of the SS industrial
activities section. In his affidavit, 4045-PS, Pohl alleged
that he had accompanied Funk and Publ Puhl to the vaults of
the bank to inspect
hlspect the loot. At Pohl's own trial, AMT4, it
transpired that Pohl's evidence had been wrought from
him by torture, including having faeces smeared on his face.
The prosecution then presented a film of piles of gold
teeth, jewellery and pearls that made the Reichsbank look
more like a pawn shop than a national bank.
Funk, as degenerate and opportunistic as ever, threw
himself on the court's mercy, and begged forgiveness. In
mitigation he pleaded, "I placed the will of the State
before my own conscience and my inner sense of duty."
He was found guilty on charges 2, 3 and 4, but was let off
on charge 1. 1. However, the tribunal was duly impressed
humility and it was this which undoubtedly
with Funk's humility'
saved him from the gallows. He was sentenced to life
imprisonment.
While he was in prison, his denazification case was put
before a Spruchkammer, but he was not allowed to leave
Spandau to appear in his own defence. Nor would the
prison authorities allow his lawyer to visit him in prison,
for the subject of trials was forbidden for visitors to
for
discuss with prisoners. The denazification tribunal decided
to confiscate his entire property.
But in 1957, Funk's lawyer applied to the court and had
the Spruchkammer decision reversed. In In the same year,
Funk was released from Spandau because of ill health, and
three years later he died.
Schacht
Hjalmar Schacht was undoubtedly the brains behind the
German economic recovery of the late 1930s. ItIt was he
Baldur von Schirach
Baldur Hjalmar Schacht
who had brought about the stabilisation of the mark, the Jeidels had become a partner in the
Agreement. By 1942, Jeidels
curtailment of unemployment, and the enormous achieveachieve- Jewish Lazard Freres
Jewish Freres bank in Manhattan,
Manhattan, but still "had
"had
ments in industrial development. He He was not a Nazi,
Nazi, but Continental pipelines into Hitlerism."
access to choice Continental Hitlerism. "
National Socialist
believed that National Socialist ideas contained a great deal Schacht also requested that the US
Schacht US Secretary
Secretary of State,
of truth.
of truth. He
He reckoned
reckoned that
that Hitler
Hitler was
was best
best suited
suited to
to be
be Sumner Welles,
Sumner Welles, be called to give evidence on his behalf.
Chancellor, despite his
Chancellor, his Obvious
obvious shortcomings. It It was
was Welles came to Germany in 1940 (after (after the outbreak of
Schacht's fundamental lack of faith
Schacht's faith in Nazi
Nazi principles that war in Europe, but before the US US joined in) and had
led to his demise within the Hitler
led Hitler government even before private talks with Schacht, when Schacht apparently made
war. He
the war. He resigned as Minister of Economics in 1938 and it clear that he had already broken with Hitler. Schacht
was dismissed
was dismissed asas President
President of
of the
the Reichsbank
Reichsbank in in 1939.
1939. He
He felt that Welles
Welles could have demolished the charges against
large section of the party by being an
alienated a large an outspoken Niimberg if he had testified on his behalf, but
him at Niirnberg
critic of the wilder accusations of Der Sturmer, Streicher's neither Welles nor anyone else from the State Department
freelance hate-sheet. In In 1942, Schacht burned his boats by ever appeared.
complaining about unfulfilled promises by the military During one of Schacht's many visits to the USA he had
that the war was being won. He He drew attention to Goring's made friends with David Sarnoff, the Russian-Jewish head
promise, "You can call me Meyer if a single bomb is of the Radio Corporation of America. Sarnoff invited him
dropped on German cities." Schacht also pointed out that to a dinner with mostly Jewish fellow-guests, and
the German people had repeatedly been promised that the apparently Schacht made a big impression with them with
war in
war in Russia
Russia was
was won.
won. But
But asas it
it was
was the
the Fiihrer
FUhrer himself
himself his speech. It may be that it was Schacht's intimacy with
who had made these promises, Schacht had committed the the powers-that-be which led to his being found innocent
ultimate heresy. In In 1943 Hitler dismissed him as Minister Nurnberg charges, although the Soviet judges
on both the Niirnberg
without Portfolio. At the same time, Goring sacked him were outraged. Jackson, the Chief Prosecutor, found his
from thethe Prussian
Prussian State
State Council.
Council. Schacht
Schacht was
was arrested
arrested onon acquittal "regrettable".
21 July 1944, the day after the attempt on Hitler's life, But Schacht was not to get off the hook so easily. After
and he was to spend the next four years in it) twenty-three his acquittal at at Niirnberg,
Niimberg, German courts were to be busy
prisons, German and Allied. Before the end of the war, war, he with him for the next five years. A A denazification tribunal
even spent some time in three Nazi concentration camps: in Stuttgart sentenced him to prison as a 'major offender',
Ravensbruck, Flossenbiirg and Dachau. The Americans but an appellate court annulled the prison sentence, whilst
Ravensbriick,
took him into custody in Pustertal in Austria. still depriving him of his property and civil rights; even
At Niirnberg, Schacht waswas indicted on charges 1 and 2. including his driving licence. The US denazification officer
In the dock, he complained that he and the other for Stuttgart said that the decision was "incomprehensible".
defendants were being treated as if they had already been The Military Governor for for Wiirttemberg-Baden,
Wurttemberg-Baden, Charles M.
found guilty. He objected to being subjected to the noise La Follette (later to be Deputy Chief Prosecutor in AMT 3)
of GIs' radios in his cell, and to not being allowed to look said that his comments on the acquittal would be un un-
out of his cell window. Once, when he was photographed printable. In fact, its decision, but
fact, the court later reversed its
without a collar and tie on while he was eating, he threw by then Schacht had moved to the British Zone.
the contents of a pot of coffee over the cameraman It
It was not long before Schacht's undisputed economic
(coming from
from a conservative family, he had rather strict abilities were back in demand, and soon he was being
ideas about propriety). The American guards loved the consulted on economic problems by governments East and
episode, and happily replaced the coffee (which he should West. Niirnberg his advice on the economic plight
West. (Even at Niimberg
not officially have had) and even provided him with as of post-war Germany, Germany had been sought by the Allied
much as he could drink. However, the prison commandant occupation government.) In 1951 he visited Indonesia, and
called Scacht's action a defamation of the American even stopped off at Lydda International Airport in Israel
uniform; almost everyone involved in the American on the way.
occupation -reporters,
—reporters, cameramen, priests, secretaries etc. There is a book which covers Schacht's five years of
-— wore military uniform, in order to distinguish them legal arraignments called Verdict on Schacht by Earl R.
from the native population. This would otherwise have Beck (Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, Press, 1955).
been a real problem for the American authorities, since so Schacht also wrote his memoirs which were published in
many of their interrogation and intelligence staff spoke German under the title 76 Jahre meines Lebens (Kindler
English with marked mid-European accents. Once, when & & Schiemeyer, 1953).
Schacht apologised to an American member of the
prosecution staff for his bad English, the officer replied,
"It's a lot better than most of my colleagues'." Indeed, the Goring Goring
trial transcript itself reveals several points where the Unlike most of the other defendants, Goring assumed
American prosecutors were themselves confused as as to the throughout the trial that he was to be sentenced to death.
correct meaning of English words. So, as he had nothing to lose, Goring's testimony appears
Schacht was able to produce copious evidence that he to be the truth (as he saw it). Neither did he back down
had opposed the Nazis' attacks on the Jews. In fact, he from challenging prosecution evidence, which the other
himself had liaised with Jewish banking interests in defendants were wary of doing too vigorously, in case it
Germany and overseas in order to provide the finance finance for
for offended the sensibilities of the court.
Germany's recovery. He requested that aa Mr. Jeidels be Although he never conceded the existence of an exter- exter
called from
from America as a defence witness. According to a mination programme (he declared that the first first time he
war-time edition of Time, dated 3.7.42, Jeidels had been had ever heard of it was "right here in Niimberg"), Niirnberg"), he was
Schacht's link-man in New York, raising loans for for Germany not in a position to offer any alternative explanation for for
on Wall Street, including Goldman, Sachs & & Co., a Jewish- the chaotic scenes which the Allies found found when they
owned bank. In 1934 Jeidels had even acted on behalf of liberated the concentration camps. He assumed that
Hitler's
Hitler's government in the famous famous Paltreu Standstill Himmler had indeed engaged in unauthorised mass murder
23
23
in these cases.
cases. However, he disputed that the total could specially designed rifle. Neither Goring nor anyone else
ever have reached six million. except Jackson, it seemed, had ever heard of this ludicrous
Goring had no difficulty in defending himself against "Bullet Decree": if the Nazis were so brutal, why would
the American Prosecutor Jackson. At one point, Jackson they go to all the trouble of building such a Heath-Robinson
had to appeal to the President of the Court for
for help, whencontraption? The only evidence Jackson could produce to
Goring defended Germany's secret mobilisation by back up this suggestion was a telegram from from Berlin to all
comparing it to America's. Jackson turned to Lawrence, State Police Directorates, instructing them that escaped
the President, and denounced what he called the witness's prisoners-of-war who had been recaptured should be
"arrogant and contemptuous attitude towards the Tribunal transported to Mauthausen under the auspices of the
which is giving him the trial which he never gave a living "Kugel" programme. As kugel can mean "bullet", the War
soul, nor dead ones either!" Lawrence refused to support Crimes Branch were able to deduce from this one word,
this childish outburst, although he did not attempt to that what was really intended was a height-measuring-
reprimand Jackson for pre-judging Goring's guilt. (Nor did device-which-was-really-an-execution-machine. But because
he ask Jackson to endeavour to explain how Goring could this imaginative exercise in etymology was awarded the
have "given a trial to dead souls"!!) prestige of an official mention in the Niirnberg evidence,
Goring's counsel also attempted to raise the politically the Mauthausen "Bullet Decree" has now gone down as
embarrassing subject of Katyn. He had contacted General part of the official history of concentration camps. It
Anders, the Commander of the Polish Army in the USSR, features prominently in Mrs. Evelyn Le Chene's
Mauthausen: The History of a Death Camp (Methuen,
for material in his possession which the Poles had collected.
Anders had responded that he was ready to comply, so as 1971), although she does express some puzzlement as to
to bring the Katyn issue out into the open for once, but why the Nazis continually felt obliged to disguise their
death programmes with innocuous-sounding euphemisms
(p.78). She remarks that some sick inmates from Maut- Maut
hausen were sent to be gassed at Hartheim Castle, and their
transfer was disguised by the fiendish use of the term
"convalescent home" next to their name in the camp
register. Why "convalescent home" should mean "gassing"
and not
not "convalescent
"convalescent home" Mrs. Le Chene Chene does not not
explain, which is especially disturbing in view of the fact
that Hartheim Castle was originally built as a hospital. But
we shall have to depend on the authoress's good graces for
such an explanation, for Hartheim was "the only prison in
use during the Second World War from which there were
no .survivors." And as the
no the castle
castle has
has now
now been
been converted
into flats, nor will there be any trace of the gas chamber(s).
Just in passing, it may be worthwhile to deviate here to
examine another Niirnberg myth: that Goring was a
pathetic drug addict -— "a simpering slob" according to the
prison commander. Another Niirnberg psychiatrist,
Douglas Kelley, has attempted to set the record straight in
Goring in the witness box this respect. During the abortive Nazi putsch of 1923,
Goring had suffered a serious wound in in his right thigh. The
pointed out that as an Allied officer, he would need the wound developed an infection which caused him to be be
permission of Allied Command before being able to come hospitalised for a long time, during which time he was
large doses of morphine. He
and give evidence. When Goring's counsel asked why injected with large
along and He developed a mild
Anders had not been allowed to come along as a defence addiction, but cured it shortly after his release from
witness, Jackson replied that he had never heard of hospital in 1924. Much later, in 1937, he developed a
Anders' offer. condition of aching teeth, and began taking tablets made
Jackson had met his match with Goring. He He asked from paracodeine, a mild morphine derivative in common
Goring if he and his colleagues had deliberately set out to use at that time. HeHe continued taking the tablets through through-
bring down the Weimar government. Much to Jackson's out the war, but the habit was terminated by Dr. Kelley
frustration, Goring answered "Yes, of course; that was at who simply reduced his daily dosage in gradual stages.
all times our intention" — - just like any modern-day
modem-day Dr. Kelley became an ardent admirer of
Ironically, Dr.
revolutionary hero, full of pride and arrogance. Finally, Goring's will-power; even after his death:
was reduced to cranking out all the war
Jackson was war propa
propa- He stoically endured his long imprisonment that he might force
He
Tribunal and browbeat the prosecuting lawyers on
down the Allied Tribunal
ganda cliches which he knew perfectly well were untrue. their
ganda His suicide was a skilful, even brilliant, finishing
own terms. His
At one point he demanded of Goring: touch, completing the edifice for Germans to admire in time to
You have testified on interrogation that it was Hitler's information
You come. History may well show that Goring won out at the end, even
US would never go
that the US go to war, even if attacked? though condemned by the high court of the Allied Powers.
SUch nonsense I never could have uttered, because if any
Goring: Such
country
country is
is attacked
attacked it
it defends
defends itself!
itself! A decade
A decade later
later Dr.
Dr. Kelley
Kelley emphasised
emphasised his
his bizarre
bizarre
~lso gave short shrift to Jackson's
Goring also Jackson's bizarre admiration for the
admiration the Nazi
Nazi Air
Air Minister
Minister when
when he
he too
too com
com-
Mauthausen "Bullet
description of the Mauthausen "Bullet Decree" which was pot~ssium cyanide
mitted suicide by taking one of several potassium
supposed to be a fiendish Nazi
Nazi method of execution, capsules which he possessed, said to be "souvenirs" taken
where the prisoner was duped into thinking he was having When Goring first arrived at
off Goring's body. When at the prison,
fact was being lined
his height measured, but in fact lined up for
for a he was discovered
he discoverea to have a phial
phial of cyanide taped to his
his
from a hidden SS
bullet through the neck from SS man with a belly, but this was
was quickly confiscated. To
To this day, no one
24
24
knows how Goring got hold of more, hours before the Hess was found Not Guilty on Counts 3 and 4, but
time set for his execution. (It has been alleged that Dr. Guilty on 1 and 2. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Kelley slipped him the drug.) Not to be daunted, the the six others who were sentenced to terms of
Hess and the
Allied authorities simply added Goring's body to those of imprisonment were sent to Spandaujailin
Spandau jailin Berlin. Although
his hanged colleagues, so that the world's press could take the others have since been released, Hess remains as the
gory group photos. sole prisoner in a jail designed for 600. Now in his 70s, it is
likely that Hess will die in Spandau. Ironically, although he
was the only one of the defendants to have made such an
effort to stop the war, he is the one to stay in prison the
longest.
Several books have been written about Hess's inhuman
incarceration, but undoubtedly the most accurate is The
Loneliest Man In the World (Secker & Warburg, 1974) by
(Seeker &
Eugene Bird, the American Governor of Spandau Prison.
·Eugene

Julius
Julius Streicher
Streicher
Julius Streicher had originally made an abortive attempt
to escape Allied-occupied Germany by growing a beard to
-disguise
disguise himself. However, he was quickly recognised and
arrested by an American-Jewish lieutenant. During the
Nurnberg Trial he was to claim that he had been beaten up
Niirnberg Trial
by American negro soldiers, and made to kiss their feet
Hermann Goring Rudolf Hess and drink their saliva. He said he was kept in a cell for four
days without clothes. His mouth was forced open with a
piece of wood and he was spat upon. When he asked for for a
Hess
Hess
drink of water
water he was taken to a latrine
latrine and told
told to drink
Rudolf Hess
Hess had been Hitler's right-hand man in the out of that. Jackson protested at the minuting of this
early days. Both had been in the Landsberg prison together, accusation, and successfully put a motion that it be
where Hess had helped Hitler to write Mein Kampf.
Kampf By the stricken from the court record. If the testimony had been
time war broke out, Hess
Hess was Deputy Fuhrer.
Fiihrer. Very much admitted, he said, then the court would have had to
an Anglophile, Hess
Hess was aghast when Britain joined in on conduct an investigation.
Poland's side. By 1941 he had realised that the war against On the third day of the trial, an official announcement
Britain was pointless, and he determined to make a was made that Streicher had been classified as sane,
personal attempt to bring about peace. On 10 May 1941, although he had the lowest IQ IQ of all the defendants -—102.
102.
Hess borrowed a plane from Augsburg airfield, and saying Throughout the trial, Streicher continually fought with his
he was flying to Stavanger in Norway, flew direct to own own defence
defence counsel
counsel -— a
a Hans
Hans Marx.
Marx. Lawrence
Lawrence threatened
threatened
He baled out over Scotland, hoping to make peace to
Britain. He to have
have Streicher
Streicher sent back to
sent back to his
his cell.
cell. Jackson wanted him
Jackson wanted him
proposals through his pre-war friend, the Duke of cited for contempt of court.
Hamilton. Hess was arrested and interned for the duration Streicher had had a stormy career in the Nazi party. He
of the war. On 10 October 1945, he was flown from had always been a freelance hate-monger, as publisher of
Niirnberg, where he would his private magazine Der Sturmer, which pulled no punches
Abergavenny to Furth, near Niimberg,
stand trial as a war criminal. in attacking all and sundry: Jew and Gentile alike. In In fact
By this time, Hess was beginning to act very strangely Streicher had been in and out of jail on many occasions for
He claimed to be suffering from amnesia, together libelling prominent public figures. In
indeed. He In 1928 he had been
with severe stomach cramps and insomnia. On 27 sacked from a teaching job for indoctrinating the school- school
November, a special session of the court was held in order children, and since then he had been involved in a wide
to decide
to decide whether
whether Hess
Hess was
was fit
fit or
or not
not to
to stand
stand trial.
trial. A
A variety of property rackets, pornography and perverted sex.
minute before the start of the session, Hess told his Hitler appointed him (honorary) Gauleiter of Niimberg Niirnberg in
counsel that he felt fit to stand trial, but his counsel 1925, and it was in this role that he set in motion the
simply ignored him and made a long speech about why he crane which demolished Nurnberg Niirnberg synagogue. But it was
was not
hot fit to stand. Hess endeavoured to get a chance to not long before Streicher became an embarrassment to the
speak himself, but when one of the judges pointed this out Nazi party. He was deprived of his Gau in 1940, and
to Jacksqn,
Jackson, the American prosecutor Jackson replied that he shortly later a Nazi party court decided that he should be
did not believe this wish to be genuine. After two hours expelled from the party. However, Hitler never gave.his
of argument, Hess was finally allowed to speak. The court official approval for this decision, and so he remained a
rocked with astonishment as Hess stated that
rocked with that his 'amnesia' Nazi
his 'amnesia' until the
Nazi until the end.
end.
had been faked from beginning to end. Streicher was the only one of the Germans on trial to
After further rows with his counsel, Hess asked to be have come anywhere near advocating "exterminating
allowed to defend himself. This was refused by the Jews". On 3 April 1925, he had told a Niirnberg audience
tribunal, which gave Hess's case to Dr. Stahmer, who was that, "For thousands of years the Jews have been
already overloaded with Goring's defence. destroying peoples: make a beginning today so that we can
When the defendants were finally allowed to address the destroy Jewry!" Whether Streicher meant physically exter- exter
court, in a closing statement only, Hess was cut short by minating Jewry, or whether he meant simply destroying
the President, who said that defendants could not be the power of organised Jewry, is of course open to debate.
allowed to make lengthy statements at 'thatthat stage in the Streicher was found not guilty on the charge of con- con
proceedings. spiring to wage aggressive war,
war, since he was not privy to
25

Julius Streicher·
Julius Streicher Ernst
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Kaltenbrunner
Hitler's plans. But he was found guilty on the "crimes
against humanity" charge and sentenced to hang. He was
the only one of those executed to fight physically to the
scaffold. He is alleged to have shouted at the American GIs
that "these Jewish Bolsheviks will hang you next". Just
before the trap door opened, he is supposed to have given
the
the Nazi
Nazi salute
salute and
and shouted "this is
shouted "this is Purim
Purim 1946!"
1946!"
Kaltenbrunner
Kaltenbrunner
Kaltenbrunner was undoubtedly sitting as an IMT
defendant as a substitute for Himmler. Since Himmler was
dead, the Allies had to have someone on trial to carry the
can for the SS. However, Kaltenbrunner was ill when the
trial a!hd did not join the other defendants until
trial opened, ii'hd
the trial wils
wks a few weeks old. When he did appear, the
other defendants shunned him, and said very little to him
during the course of the next ten months.
Kaltenbrunner's position seems to us today to have been
somewhat hopeless, but he nevertheless had to present
some sort of defence. It rested on two main points.
first point he made was that he was head of the
The fin;t
RSHA, which was in charge of security, and not the head
of the WVHA, which administered the concentration
camps. The only known instance of Kaltenbrunner's
involvement with the internal operations of the camps was
in his order of March 1945, concerning permission for the
Red Cross to establish itself in the camps. (How he assumed
authority for giving this order we do not know -— it is
likely that in the closing stages of the war, the usual chain
of command had largely broken down, and officers were
attempting to make do as best they could.) He made a
great deal of play with this matter in his defence and,
rather than setting the record straight in regard to the
catastrophic conditions in the camps at the end of the war,
instead
instead he inflated his
he inflated his action
action in
in connection
connection with
with the
the Red
Red
Cross to make it appear to be an act against concentration
camps themselves, "which, of course, he had always
deplored anyway," he said.
Kaltenbrunner's second point was that it was his pre- pre
decessor Heydrich, and not he, who had organised the
details of the Jewish policy, whatever that policy was. He
took over the RSHA in 1943 with a directive from Himmler
took
to build up the intelligence service of the SD. He claimed
that he had been given specific instructions not to interfere
with the security functions of the RSHA, in particular, the
Gestapo, which was responsible for sending Jews to the
camps. He said that Himmler was very wary of giving
anybody all these areas to look after, in case they grew in
26
26
power and stature the way Heydrich had. Thus, according
to Kaltenbrunner, there was no respect in which he himself
could be held responsible for the extermination of the Jews.
However, he did agree
agree that extermination had taken
place, but it had started earlier, in 1940, he said, but it was
not until the summer of 1943 that he learned of the exter-
not exter
mination programme which Eichmann and his department
were conducting. He claimed he had learned from the
foreign press and radio. He got Himmler to admit it early
in 1944 and then protested, first to Hitler, then to
Himmler. "The extermination programme was stopped in in
October 1944," he said, "chiefly due to (his) intervention."
Kaltenbrunner did manage to hold finn
firm on one particular
point. InIn cross-examination, Col. John Amen, for for the
prosecution, tried to get Kaltenbrunner to admit that the
term "Sonderbehandlung" ("special treatment") actually
meant execution. In an attempt to implicate Kaltenbrunner
personally with "special treatment", Amen triumphantly
produced a document where he had ordered Sonder- Sonder
behandlung for certain people. Amen wanted Kaltenbrunner
to comment on the document without even reading it, and
there was an angry exchange in this connection, but
Kaltenbrunner was finally allowed.
allowed to read the document.
The reason
The reason for
for Amen's
Amen's reticence
reticence soon
soon became
became clear.
clear. In
In the
the
context of the document, it turned out that Kaltenbrunner
was ordering Sonderbehandlung for those people at
"Winzerstube" and
"Winzerstube" and at "Walzertraum" -— two
at "Walzertraum" two fashionable
fashionable
hotels which quartered interned notables -— and that
Sonderbehandlung in their cases meant such things as
permission to correspond freely and to receive parcels, a
bottle of champagne per day, etc.
On another occasion, Kaltenbrunner ran into a similar
problem over documentary 'evidence'. An affidavit
(PS-3319) by a mysterious Ludwig Kohlhammar reported
that an anti-Jewish congress had been held on 3/4 April
1944, under the auspices of the Reich Foreign Ministry.
One of Ribbentrop's defence witnesses, von Steengracht,
gave evidence that Ribbentrop had prevented the congress
ever taking place. Completely ignoring this fact, the
Faur6 went on a few days later to grill
French prosecutor Faure
Ribbentrop over whether or not he agreed with the anti-
semitic sentiments expressed at the 'congress'. Ribbentrop
replied, "What was this congress? I have never even heard
that such a congress took place. Will you please put the
document at my disposal so that I may answer?" Faure Faur6
answered, "I have no intention of showing you this docu- docu
ment." Nevertheless, PS-3319 was admitted in evidence,
although attempts were made to give the item a 'low
profile' by omitting Kohlhammar's name from the
affidavit index.
Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi Party's self-acclaimed chief
theorist on racial questions, was naturally enough a prime
target for the Niirnberg assize although it appears that
both Rosenberg and the Tribunal overestimated his impor
imp or-
tance in the Third Reich. Despite his Jewish-sounding.
Jewish-sounding
name, he was a German through and through, although
born and brought up in (German settled) Estonia.
In
In the early 1920s he had written several books on the
Jewish question, including his most fainous
famous Myth of the
Twentieth Century. In 1941 he became Minister for the
Occupied Eastern Territories. In this position he adopted
the typically reactionary posture of the German volks-uolks-
deutsch petty bourgeoisie -— he aspired to aping the
patronising grandeur of the Tsars (themselves largely of
German blood). He He spoke up against the brutalities of the
SS against the peasantry, but at the same time he opposed
the raising of a Free Russian army under General Vlasov.
He complained bitterly about German soldiers destroying
Soviet works of art; so that he could pillage them himself.
Rosenberg was so pompous that at the end of the War he
wrote a letter to Field Marshal Montgomery, from Donitz's
HQ at Flensburg, placing his services at Montgomery's
disposal. He was rather taken aback when two British
officers arrived soon
soon afterwards to arrest him.
At Niirnberg, Rosenberg attempted to defend his
confiscation of Jewish and Masonic property by pointing
out that the Allies were at that very moment seizing
German assets even including libraries. He insisted that he
himself had never received anything of value out of the
Nazi confiscations. When the prosecution reminded him
that three Dutch paintings had been discovered in his
house, he replied that these had been "gifts".
One of the documents which was produced by the
prosecution was 212-PS, which was supposed to be an
instruction from Rosenberg that any Jews who flouted the
Nazis' labour laws should be killed. Rosenberg's defence
pointed out that the document did not bear his, or any,
pointed"
signature. And Rosenberg himself testified that he had
never seen the
never seen the document before.
document before.
The prosecution also alleged that Rosenberg had
advocated in a speech the "extermination of the Jews"
("die Ausrottung des Judentums").
Judentums "). But Rosenberg was
able to show that "Ausrottung" had been mis-translated;
in fact it meant "uprooting". Likewise, "Judentum" did
not mean "Jews" as individuals (this would have been
Juden) but should be translated as "Jewry" or "Jewish
power".
One of the documents which was produced (135-R)
which appeared to be a genuine one recovered from the
files of the SS, was a letter from one of Rosenberg's
assistants, Heinrich Lohse, to Rosenberg, dated 18 June
1943, which mentioned the term "sonderbehandlung"
("special treatment") for the Jews. The prosecution alleged
that this referred to extermination. But as Rosenberg's
counsel quite logically pointed out, the term could relate
to a whole variety of things. (Indeed, when the same trick
was tried with Kaltenbrunner, he was able to show that in
the particular document presented in his case, "sonder-
"sonder
behandlung" meant special privileges for prisoners, such as
receiving a bottle of champagne every day!)
Many of the documents presented in Rosenberg's trial
had arrived at Niirnberg by a very roundabout route.
About 70 of the documents which were finally presented
in evidence had been 'discovered' at the Rosenberg Ministry
'discovered'at
in Berlin by a Sergeant Szajko Frydman, of the US 82nd
Airborne Division. Frydman was a staff member of the
Yivo (the New York Yiddish Scientific Institute) both
before and after his war service, and his 'finds' were first
handed over to the Yivo for 'screening' before they finally
put in an appearance at Niimberg.
Niirnberg.
Many of the Yivo documents were supposed to be letters
to or from Heinrich Lohse, the assistant of Rosenberg'S
Rosenberg's
whose other letters were discovered in the SS files. Oddly,
Lohse was never called as a witness at Niirnberg; he main-
main
tained a very low profile. As for the documents attributed
to him, Reitlinger the Jewish Holocaust 'expert' remarks
that they "saved him from the Allied Military Courts and
perhaps the gallows"; for although the documents mention
atrocities and exterminations, they are so worded as to put
Lohse himself as being in opposition to the crimes. Lohse
was not to get away scot-free however; in 1948 he stood
trial before a German court and was sentenced to 10 years'
27
27
imprisonment. He was released in 1951 on grounds of of ill-
health, but at least his Niimberg
Niirnberg letters had saved his skin.
But for Rosenberg, they spelt conviction.
Rosenberg's over-inflated ego was rather confused by
the trial. He still thought that National Socialism was the
solution to Europe's ills, but felt that Hitler had made one
or two drastic errors of judgement. The main one, it
seemed, had been the Fiihrer's promotion of men like
Gobbels and Bormann, instead of himself. If only Hitler
had recognised Rosenberg's towering abilities, the outcome
of the War might well have been different, he indicated.
The Tribunal obviously went some way towards agreeing
with Rosenberg's high opinion of his own importance.
They reckoned that he was responsible and guilty in all
four areas of war crimes -— a finding usually only reserved
for the really top rank Nazi leaders.
Rosenberg at last achieved the sense of importance and
self esteem which had so eluded him during his life-time
when he joined his high-ranking colleagues on the gallows
in the Niimberg
Niirnberg jail gymnasium the following October.
Alfred Rosenberg Franz von Papen
Papen
Papen
One of the most unlikely defendants at the IMT was
Franz von Papen, Hitler's penultimate predecessor as
Chancellor. He
He was born into an aristocratic Westphalian
family in 1879, and was a leading member of the
conservative/Catholic Zentrum Party.
His period as Chancellor lasted only a few months, for
he was rapidly deposed and replaced by General Schleicher.
Two months later, Schleicher too was replaced by Hitler.
For eighteen months Papen attempted to work with Hitler
in the cabinet, but gradually found out that any kind of
compromise was impossible. In 1934 he made a long
speech at Marburg, attacking the excesses of the Nazi
regime. Papen was quickly removed from the government
and despatched to political exile as German ambassador to
Austria. In 1939, his star waned even further as he was
packed off to obscurity as ambassador in Turkey.
When Papen returned to Germany at the end of the war,
he was astounded to be placed under arrest by the
Americans, and rapidly hauled up before the NiimbergNiirnberg
court as a 'war criminal'. Although the trial itself began on
6 September 1946, Papen himself did not get a chance to
speak until 14 June 1947. Since he had never fired a shot
during the whole war, never made a policy decision and
never done anything very much except vegetate, Papen was
charged with the most vague of charges on the list: crimes
against peace.
 The essence of the accusation was put by the British labour, plus the deprivation of his civil rights for good.
prosecutor, the Jew Sir David Maxwell Fyfe (later Lord The Prosecution appealed against the eight years -— they
Kilmuir): wanted ten. Papen too appealed, his case being heard on
What I am putting to you is that the only reason that could have 18 January 1949. In In the meanwhile, he was kept in
kept you in the service of the Nazi government, when you knew all custody in an internment camp outside Niirnberg. The
these crimes, was that you sympathised and wanted to carry on with
the Nazis' work. That is what I am putting to you -— that you had
Appeal Court found in Papen's favour and cancelled the
this express knowledge; you had seen your own friends, your own term of imprisonment; they regarded his past incarceration
servants, murdered around you. You had the detailed knowledge of
servants as having been sufficient punishment. However they
it
it, and the only reason which could have dominated you, and made approved of the loss of his civil rights, and also ordered
y~u
you take one job after another from the Nazis was, that you that he pay a fine of DM30,OOO
DM30,000 plus costs estimated around
sympathised with their work. That is what I am putting against you,
Herr von Papen. DM90,OOO.
DM90,000.
For some obscure reason, the transcript of Papen's
Fyfe's admission that all they could pin on Papen was denazification trials is lodged in the library of St. Anthony's
his "Nazi sympathies" held little sway with the court. In College, Oxford. AA precis of the case appears in Constantine
his summing up, Chief (later Lord) Justice Lawrence FitzGibbon's Denazification (Michael Joseph, London,
pointed out that the court had a1rea~y lay do~
already had to lay down a 1969). .
date line, to determine when the NazIS
Nazis had begun plannmg
planning
"aggressive war". The date had been fixed at 5 November Bormann
Hitler ~d
1937 (the date of a conference between I;Iitler and ~is
his It was never properly explained at the IMT why it was
military leaders). Papen had not been at this
thIS meeting, m in that Bormann could be
that be tried in absentia. Since the court
fact he was dismissed from his Vienna job some three had concluded that the elder Krupp could not be tried in
months later. Papen was found not guilty, and as far as the his absence, one would have thought that the same would
Allies were concerned could walk the court a free
walk from the apply to Bormann. But in the typical manner of the
man, much to the Soviets' chagrin. Niirnberg Trials, the court acted completely erratically,
But he was not set free. The Bavarian puppet-government ignoring both established legal procedure and even its own
had become so enamoured with its novel role of denazi- denazi decision
decision in
in another
another case.
case.
fication that they immediately applied for Papen's arrest In its own world of judicial make-believe, the Tribunal
and re-trial before a Bavarian court. Papen remained in even appointed legal counsel for the absent Bormann, in
prison for some time, whilst he uns~ccessfully
unsuccessfully applied for the form of Friedrich Bergold. Bergold faced insuperable
permission to move from t~~ Amencan
from the th~ French and
American to the odds in presenting any form of defence for his client, since
British zone
zone, where he antICIpated
anticipated greater leniency.
leruency. When his client was not there to instruct him. So, instead of
he eventually was released from prison he was immediately struggling with a rickety skeleton of a defence, Bergold
placed under house arrest by the Bavarian
Bavarian authorities, first confined his argument to a submission that Bormann was
in the house of a friend, later in hospital. dead and therefore no sentence could be passed on him.
The Denazification Court was presided over by a Jew; Even in the bizarre world of the Niirnberg Palace of Justice,
President Camille Sachs of the District Court. The members a dead man could not be hanged, therefore neither could
of the court included a doctor, a civil engineer, a depart-
depart he be
he be tried.
tried.
mental manager, a police superintendent and a commercial Although Bergold himself was fully convinced of
agent. There were three reserve members: a plumber, a Bormann's absence from the land of the living, the Tribunal
decorator and a trade unionist. Prosecuting counsel was found his evidence somewhat lacking. As there was no
Dr. Werner Fiebig, a High Court Judge.
Judge. Defending Counsel evidence to show that Bormann's body had been found, it
was the lawyer Dr. Kubuschok, who had defended Papen followed, they conjectured, that Bormann must still be
before the IMT. making use of it. Bormann was found guilty on charges
charges 3
The
The proceedings went on for.for a mont~. ~ell-know~
month. Many well-known and 4, and was sentenced to death. However, the errant
witnesses were called, includmg
including PreSIdent
President Hmdenburg
Hindenburg'ss Bormann failed to pay due respect to the esteemed Inter- Inter
son Oskar. In many cases,
cases, the Court decided that the oath national Military Tribunal, and neglected to turn up at the
should not be administered, since they had doubts about appointed time for his execution.
the witnesses' credibility! On 3 February
February 1947, the Court Naturally, this has caused considerable anguish amongst
Papen guilty and sentenced him to eight years' hard
found Papen dedicated Tribunalophiles and Naziphobes. The absence of
Martin Bormann at his own execution has stimulated large
numbers of
numbers of Nazi-hunters to scour
Nazi-hunters to scour the
the four
four corners
corners of
of the
the
earth for this man, anxious that he should not miss all the
fun which his erstwhile colleagues enjoyed. Although
irregular sightings have occurred in sundry, obscure, South
American banana republics, none of these has resulted in a
positive 'find'. ' .
Just supposing for
for one moment that Bormann was still
extant
extant, and was run to earth, it is rather interesting to
specul~te
speculate as to wh~t wo~ld meet. It is doubt~l
what fate he would doubtful if
the Allies would have the tenaCIty
tenacity to carry out a thrrty-
thirty-
year old sentence, particularly as all the Western Allies
have now abolished the death penalty. Probably the way
out of it would be for Bormann to 'accidentally' fall into
the hands of the Mossad, the Israeli secret intelligence
service, who would 'persuade' Bormann to accompany
them to Israel 'voluntarily', where he could 'make a clean
Constantin von
von Neurath
Neurath Albert Speer breast of things so that future generations would beware
28
28 .
of the
of the ancient,
ancient, indeed
indeed Mediaeval,
Mediaeval, mental
mental disorder
disorder known
known Speer
Speer was
was sentenced
sentenced to
to 20
20 years'
years' imprisonment,
imprisonment, which
which
as anti-Semitism'.
as anti-Semitism'. As
As fate
fate would
would have
have it,
it, Israel
Israel too
too has
has he
he served,
served, to
to the
the very
very minute,
minute, in
in Spandau
Spandau Prison
Prison in
in Berlin.
Berlin.
abolished
abolished capital
capital punishment,
punishment, but
but with
with the
the exception of He
exception of He was
was released
released in
in 1966
1966 and
and isis still
still alive
alive today,
today, although
although
crimes related
crimes related to
to the
the 'Holocaust'.
'Holocaust'. Thus
Thus Martin
Martin Bormann
Bormann he maintains
he rather low
maintains aa rather low profile.
profile.
would finally
would finally meet
meet his
his 'just
'just deserts',
deserts', handed
handed down
down at
at
Niirnberg over
Niirnberg over aa quarter
quarter of
of aa century
century ago.
ago.
THE WITNESSES
THE WITNESSES
Von Neurath
Von Neurath
The conservative
The conservative diplomat
diplomat Neurath
Neurath was
was appointed
appointed TheSS
TheSS
Reichsprotektor of
Reichsprotektor of Czechoslovakia by
by Hitler
Hitler in 1939.
1939. It
It One
One ofof the
the star
star witnesses
witnesses against
against the
the SS,
SS, which
which was was
was aa role
was role which
which was
was to
to win
win him
him no
no friends,
friends, since
since the
the charged
charged with
with being
being a "guilty
"guilty organisation", was was General
General
Czechs detested
detested him
him as a symbol
symbol of
of Nazi
Nazi imperialism
imperialism and
and Erich
Erich von
von dem Bach-Zelewski.
Bach-Zelewski. He He was
was prepared
prepared to to be
be "co
"co-
the Nazis derided him
the him for
for being
being too
too lenient. operative" with
with the
the court,
court, as
as he
he himself
himself was
was under
under threat
Indeed Neurath was able
Indeed, able to
to demonstrate at at his
his trial
trial that of
of arrest,
arrest, trial
trial and execution
execution onon account
account of his his role
role in
in the
the
h~ rule Czech theatres, concert halls,
under his halls, cinemas, and suppression of the Warsaw uprising.
remained open. His policy was to
synagogues remained to Germanise evidence of Bach-Zelewski
The evidence Bach-Zelewski is is contained
contained in volume
volume
the Czechs
the Czechs and
and welcome
welcome them
them as cives Germanii. It
as cives It was
was his IV of the IMT
IMT report. In In March 1941, he claimed, Himmler
moderation which led to hishis downfall. In 1941, Hitler sent (the head of the SS) invited his his SS chiefs (including Bach-
Heydrich toto Prague to
to toughen up up the
the German adminis
adminis- Zelewski) to his his castle at Wewelsburg for a conference.
tration. This eventually led to Neurath's resignation in in Himmler spoke in in grandiose terms about the liquidation of of
October 1943.
October 1943. the peoples of Eastern Europe, he he said.
One of the main witnesses against Neurath at Niirnberg
One Goring, in in the dock, denounced Bach-Zelewski to his
was an erratic American diplomat by by the name of of George
George S. face for the falsity of his his testimony. One especially out out-
Messersmith a former US Consul in
Messersmith, in Berlin and in Austria. rageous allegation concerned a supposed declaration by by
Messersmith' claimed that Neurath and Papen had told him
Messersmith Himmler that one of the aims of the Russian campaign was
in advance of the Nazi Anschluss plans. Naturally enough, to "decimate the Slav Slav population by thirty millions".
(in his own testimony) as a beacon
Messersmith stood out (in What Himmler really said is given by his his Chief of Staff,
of humanitarianism standing up against the wicked Wolff: that war in Russia was certain to result in millions
tyrannical plans of the Nazis. But But as Eugene Davidson of dead (cf(cf. Manvell & & Frankl, The Incomparable Crime,
comments in The Trial Of the Germans: p.117).
places,
Messersmith's affidavit palpably exaggerated in important places, Bach-Zelewski 's accusation
Another brazen falsehood was Bach-Zelewski's
and his testmony . . . was unlikely on the fact fact of it. The trials at that on 31
31 August 1942, Himmler personally witnessed the
Niirnberg, and later Eichmann's
Niirnberg, Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem, were to elicit
elici.t such
witnesse~ who
testimony on the part of witnesses who not only wanted
wa.nted. to
to. inflate
mflate execution of one hundred Jews by an Action Group at
their own roles,
roles but were determined to take part in m bringing the Minsk, causing him nearly to faint. It is known, however,
accused to
t.o justice.
justice. The court does not seem to giv~n much
to have given m~ch that on
on this particular date Himmler was in conference at
weight to testimony which was obviously part of a fantasy in m which his field headquarters at Zhitomir in the Ukraine {cf. (cf.
the witnesses played momentous roles against tyranny.
K. Vowinckel, Die Wehrmacht im Kampf, vol.4, p.275).
Despite the flights of fantasy engaged in by US Govern-
Govern Much is made, even today, of Bach-Zelewski's evidence.
ment witnesses, Neurath was found guilty on all four Rimmler: Evil Genius of
Books such as Willi Frischauer's Himmler:
counts. He was sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment, the Third Reich draw heavily on it. However, in April
of which he served eight, at Spandau prison in Berlin. He 1959, Bach-Zelewski publicy repudiated his Niirnberg
was released on account of ill-health in 1954 and died two testimony before a West German court. He admitted that
years later at the age of 83. his earlier statements had not the slightest foundation in
Speer fact, and that he had made them for the sake of expediency
and his own survival. The German court, after careful
Speer's trial strategy was simple, and also relatively
successful, since he did not hang. Conceding the existence deliberation, accepted his retraction.
of the extermination programme, he denied all knowledge Ironically, the truth concerning Himmler and the SS
was provided long after the Niirnberg Trials by an anti-
of it during the war. Even today he still maintains this Nazi -— Felix Kersten, Himmler's physician and masseur.
absurd position.
In fact, Speer and his assistants were deeply involved in In his Memoirs 1940-1945
1940—1945 he reveals that from his close

the deportation of (employable) Hungarian Jews for work personal knowledge of Himmler he is convinced that
in the underground aircraft factories at Buchenwald. Himmler did not advocate liquidating the Jews, but
Therefore any rail transport priority given to Hungarian favoured their emigration overseas.
Jews to be exterminated (as alleged at the IMT) would However, Himmler was not around to be able to stand
have become known to Speer if such had actually been the trial. He had committed "suicide" whilst in British
captivity. IfIf he had lived to give evidence, it is likely that
case. IfIf Speer had testified truthfully, he would hate haVe he would have been the only one of the defendants who
declared that he had been so situated that if an exter- exter
mination programme of this kind existed, he would have was able to give a true interpretation of the harrowing
known scenes found in the camps at the end of the war, since he
known about it, and that to his his knowledge, none did. But closely responsible. In fact,
fact, in an interview
interview with
with
it seems was most closely
seems rather
rather obvious that such a statement would
would have
have
a representative of of the World
World Jewish
Jewish Congress, just a
Congress, just a few
few
ranked as
ranked as heresy to the IMT,
IMT, and Speer would have joined
his weeks
weeks before
before thethe end of thethe war,
war, he indicated what that that
his colleagues
colleagues onon the
the gallows.
gallows. evidence
evidence would
would have
have been:
In Speer's book,
In Speer's book, the only
only reference
reference to "gas-chambers"
"gas-chambers" In order
order to
to put
put aa stop
stop to
to the
the epidemics,
epidemics, we
we were
were forced
forced to
to burn
burn
In
appears
appears in in the
the Introduction,
Introduction, which
which was
was written
written by
by Eugene the
the bodies
bodies ofof incalculable
incalculable numbers
numbers of of people
people whowho had
had been
been
Davidson
Davidson and and added
added to
to Speer's
Speer's original
original manuscript
manuscript on
on the
the destroyed
destroyed byby disease.
disease. We
We were
were therefore
therefore forced
forced to
to build
build crematoria,
crematoria,
insistence
insistence of
of the
the publishers.
publishers. and
and on
on this
this account
account they
they are
are knotting
knotting aa noose
noose for
for us.
us.
29
29
 To have presented such an interpretation at the IMT of paragraph 4. "Fall" is the American word; the English
would have meant challenging the whole sine qua non of say "Autumn". Consider also the use of the terms "one-
the trial. It was acceptable for the other defendants to, to 6,-sentence 6) and "one-half hour"
half year" (paragraph 6,'sentence
admit exterminations whilst disclaiming personal respon
respon- (paragraph 6, penultimate sentence). These are distinctly
sibility, or even to dispute the extermination whilst failing American terms; the English would say "half-a-year" and
to provide an alternative explanation for the crematoria. "half-an-hour".
But to actually put forward a logically feasible alternative There is no doubt that Hoss hoped to buy his life by
explanation was heresy that could not be allowed. co-operating with the IMT prosecution. There is also
Himmler's death is even today shrouded in mystery. evidence that he was subject to torture and brain-washing;
his testimony at Niirnberg was delivered in a mindless
Hoss
Hoss
monotone as he stared blankly into space. Even Jewish
The commandant at Auschwitz from May 1940 to late 'holocaust experts' such as Reitlinger reject his testimony
1943 was SS Colonel Rudolf Hoss. During the IMT trial as hopelessly untrustworthy. However, Hoss' reward for
he had signed several affidavits for the prosecution, the'the his services was to be packed off to Poland about a month
most noted being signed on 5 Apri11946.
April 1946. after his IMT testimony.
In order not to make things too obviously rigged, it was The Communists admit that they "ordered him to write
arranged that he would be called by the defence, during the story of his life" which was published as Wspomnienia
the Kaltenbrunner trial on 15 April
Apri11946.
1946. The major part in the Polish language in 1951. A hand-written original
of his testimony was merely assenting to his 5 April supposedly exists, but no one in the West has ever seen it.
affidavit.
affidavit. German and English translations followed in 1960 under
Hoss was to become the star prosecution witness of the the title Commandant of Auschwitz. One of the most
entire Niirnberg trial, and his evidence has gone down in illuminating keys to this whole bizarre hoax is contained
history, unchallenged, as the Authentic Auschwitz Story. in these Hoss memoirs, where he is supposed to have said
Perhaps it is about time that the Hoss testimony was that the Jehovah's Witnesses at Auschwitz approved of
effectively questioned. The full text appears in Prof. Butz's murdering the Jews because the Jews were the enemies of
book, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century. Christ. Now, it is well known that in the USSR today and
Not even Hoss clung to the figure of 2,500,000 victims in all Iron Curtain countries, the Communists conduct a
gassed, cited in paragraph two. At the time of his own trial bitter campaign of suppression against the Jehovah's
in Poland in 1947 he used a figure of 1,135,000. (Various Witnesses, whom they regard as being anti-Communist.
other 'authorities' use figures ranging from 750,000 That this sect is deliberately and grossly defamed in the
through 4,000,000 to 7,000,000.) The special mention Hoss memoirs proves the document's Communist origins
accorded to the Hungarian Jews arouses some suspicion, beyond any doubt.
as it has since transpired that large numbers of Jews who However
However Hoss
Hoss did
did not
not live
live even to see
even to see his
his 'memoirs'
'memoirs' inin
disappeared from Hungary were secretly spirited away to print. He was 'tried' by the Polish government in March
Palestine and the U.S.A. via via neutral countries under
under aa 1947, and the following month he was executed, ironically,
covert agreement between Eichmann and Jewish com- com at Auschwitz.
at Auschwitz.
munity leaders Biss, Brand and Kastner. (see Andr6Andr~ Biss,
A Million Jews to Save.) Hottl
Hottl
In paragraph 4, Hoss claims that even after he was Another star witness
Another witness at the trials was aa Dr. Wilhelm
promoted to the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps in Hottl, an assistant of Adolf Eichmann's at the office of
Berlin, he still knew that the gassings were continuing. Yet Jewish Emigration in Budapest, Hungary.
in his verbal testimony at Niirnberg, Hoss said that while Hottl was born in Vienna in 1915 and grew up with
he was Commander of Auschwitz his inspector was Kaltenbrunner, one of the IMT defendants. Hottl entered
allowed to know nothing about the exterminations. Also the SD in 1938 and soon acquired a reputation for mixing
during his own trial in 1947, Hoss said that gassings began official business with personal deals. In 1942 the SS
in the summer of 1942, not 1941. investigated a land deal he had conducted in Poland, in
According to Hoss in paragraph seven, Jews not fit to liaison with a Polish countess friend of his. The SS report
work were gassed immediately upon arrival, but an characterised HottI Hottl as "dishonest, scheming, fawning ... . . .
account directly in conflict with this claim appears in a aa real hoaxer" and concluded that he was not even suitable
War Refugee Board report compiled, allegedly, from the for membership of the SS, let alone such a sensitive branch
testimony of Auschwitz survivors. The survivors stated as the SD. He was, accordingly, reduced to the ranks.
that new arrivals were kept in quarantine for six months,
nlonths, However when his boyhood friend Kaltenbrunner was
in case they brought in disease. appointed to head the RSHA, after Heydrich's
Heydrich 's assassination
Hoss claims that Jews were separated into extermination- by British commandos, Hottl's fortunes started to look up
and work-groups simply as they walked past a doctor. Yet again, and he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel with
according to Dr. E. A. Cohen, a Dutch Jew who claims he special responsibility in foreign intelligence work. Towards
was a doctor at Auschwitz, Jews were only selected for the end of the war he worked with Eichmann in Budapest.
special treatment after a proper medical examination at With the war over, Hottl very obligingly co-operated
the camp h ospital..
hospital. fully with the Allies and signed several affidavits for the
It seems very strange indeed that Hoss would write such IMT prosecution. In his affidavit 2793-PS, signed on
an important statement in a foreign language. There is no 26 November 1945, Hottl stated that Eichmann had
documentary evidence extant to show that Hoss knew any visited his office in a depressed mood because he was
English at all. But even if he did speak English, it would be convinced that the war was lost. Eichmann thought that
logical to assume that, being a European, he would have the Allies would punish him as a major war criminal. He
learned English as it is spoken in England. At several points then declared, with no other witnesses present, that four
in the affidavit the idiom used is of the American variety. million Jews had been killed in extermination camps and
Consider for example the word "Fall" in the first sentence that two million had met their deaths in various other
30
ways, mainly through executions carried out by Action
Groups.
This was the only evidence produced throughout the
Niirnberg trials to back up the six million figure
Niimberg figure -— the
written affidavit of a highly dubious character that a minor
civil servant (then missing) had told him, with no other
witnesses present, that six million Jews
Jews had been killed.
There is considerable evidence that Hetti
Hottl was an Allied
agent, at least during the latter part of the war. Some
authorities suggest that he may have been more of a
'Walter Mitty' character, revelling in the intrigue of
'Walter
'espionage' purely for reasons of personal inadequacy. But
whatever his motivations, HettI
Hottl certainly played a highly
suspect role.
For towards the end of the war, HettI
Hottl was in contact
with Allen Dulles, of the Office of Strategic Services (now
the CIA) in Switzerland. This may have been in order to
receive instructions, but on the other hand it may have
simply meant that HettI
Hottl was endeavouring to negotiate a
German surrender. When the war officially ended however,
Hottl was given the sensitive job of interrogating his ex-SS
HettI
comrades on behalf of the US Army Counter-Intelligence
Counter-intelligence
Corps -— hardly the kind of position the Americans would
give to a Nazi or to an erratic Walter Mitty.
During the Niirnberg
Niirnberg trials, HettI
Hottl met up with two
American-Jewish members of the Niirnberg staff -— Verber
and Ponger, who later turned out to be Soviet agents.
Verber·and
Verber and Ponger worked as translators at the trials (they
were both recently-naturalised Americans who had
emigrated from Russia). Kurt Ponger also acted as a
prosecution lawyer in the later AMT trial 4. Ponger and
Verber stayed on in Europe after the trials and were
arrested and charged with espionage for the Soviets in
Vienna in 1953. Hetti Hottl was also arrested by the US
authorities in March 1953, suspected of complicity in the
case, but due to lack of evidence he was released a few
weeks later.
weeks later.
In
In the mid-fifties, under the pseudonym of Walter
Hagen, Hetti
Hagen, Hottl published two books about his hi~ war-time
experiences -— The Secret Front and Hitler's Paper Weapon.
In 1961, the popular British magazine Weekend published
In
a feature article on HettI,
Hottl, claiming that during the war he
had been a British agent. (Weekend, 25/29.1.61.)
This article coincided with HettI's
Hottl's re-emergence as a
'war-crimes expert', this time at the trial in Israel of his
former boss, Adolf Eichmann. HettI Hottl again submitted an
affidavit, largely similar to his Niimberg
Niirnberg testimony. Not
unexpectedly, Eichmann disputed that the interview had
ever taken place. And again not unexpectedly, the court
preferred to believe HettI.
Hottl. Eichmann was hanged on 31
May 1962.
Gerstein
Yet another Niimberg witness" who turned out to
Niirnberg "star witne'ss"
be highly unreliable was one Kurt Gerstein, an SS First
Lieutenant whose lugubrious title was Chief Disinfection
Officer in the Office of the Hygienic Chief of thp.
the Waffen-
SS. In this role it was Gerstein's responsibility to supervise
the deliveries of disinfection supplies to all the camps
administered by the SS.
Two versions of what happened to him at the end of the
war are offered to us by different authorities. In In one
version, he encountered American interrogators by chance
on 26 April 1945 in a hotel in Rottweil, in the Black
Forest. Apparently, he had told them that he had obtained
a responsible post in the Nazi Party while operating as a
secret agent on behalf of the anti-Nazi co-ordinator Rev.
31
Niemoller. He went on to reveal that he had been involved
Niemeller.
in the operating of gas-chambers, and said that he was
quite willing to give evidence to this effect in court. He
then handed them a seven page document, typed in
French, together with a note in English and some Zyklon
invoices, and then vanished.
In the second version, he somehow found himself in the
In
Cherche-Midi military prison in in Paris, where he composed
a document in French, in his own hand, added the Zyklon
invoices, and then hanged himself in July 1945. In either
case, neither he nor his body has ever been produced.
The Gerstein Statement together with the Zyklon
invoices was introduced as document 1553-PS at Niirnberg.
However, the Statement is possibly the most ludicrous and
obviously fake piece of evidence introduced during the
whole series of trials.
The full
full text is included in
in Appendix A A of Butz's Hoax
of the Twentieth Century, and is well worth examination
in order to get some idea of just how bizarre the entire
Niirnberg episode was. Suffice it to say here that the
Niimberg
Statement is riddled with inaccuracies and fantasy. It is
simply not true that Hitler ever visited Lublin camp
(paragraph 4). It is physically impossible to pack 700—800
700-800
people into a gas-chamber of 25 square metres (paragraph
7). Nor can August be described as being "in winter"
(paragraph 7). Neither could there have been 25 million
people gassed (paragraph 7), which even the AMT had to
tacitly admit, since they edited this figure out of the
particular version of the Statement submitted as document
1553-PS.
One of the more reliable aspects of the Gerstein State-
State
ment is undoubtedly the admission in paragraph 3 that
there is a streak of insanity running in his family. However,
this did not hinder the West German government in 1955
issuing an edition of the Gerstein Statement for distribution
in German
in German schools.
schools.
A drastically edited version of the Gerstein Statement
A
was
was also
also introduced
introduced at the Jerusalem
at the Jerusalem trial
trial of
of Adolf
Adolf
Eichmann in in 1961.
SS Colonel
Colonel Kurt Becher and Resze
Reszo Kastner
One of the less well remembered prosecution witnesses
at Niimberg
Niirnberg was SS Colonel Kurt Becher, who was Adolf
Eichmann's superior officer in Budapest. Becher's overall
responsibility was for securing horses, supplies and equip-
equip
ment for the SS troops, after the occupation of Hungary in
1944.
What is not generally acknowledged is that Becher, like
his colleague Eichmann, was actively pro-Zionist, and
carried out many helpful tasks for the Jewish community
in Budapest. Now a remarkable book has been written
about this period by one of the Budapest Jewish leaders,
Andr£ Biss, A Million Jews To Save (New English Library,
Andr~
1973; previously published in German as Der Stopp der
Endlosung, 1966).
Biss describes how Becher first became popular with the
Jewish community in Budapest when he negotiated with
the prominent Weiss family the purchase from them of a
major share-holding in the biggest industrial and banking
conglomerate in Hungary. Later, he also arranged for them
to be granted exit visas, so that they could sit out the rest
of the war in peaceful Switzerland or Portugal. Becher
became extremely friendly with the Weiss family during
the negotiations; he even lodged at the same block of flats
where some members of the family housed their collections
of art, antiques and tapestries (p.73). He
He also found that
in order to buy any kind of supplies for the German forces,
he nearly always had to buy from a Jewish dealer, since,
according to Biss "commerce, industry and banking came
to be almost exclusively in their hands ... even agricult~al
agricultural
business, such as horse trading, had been up until then
mainly conducted by Jews" (p.74). Later on in the war,
Becher had the full support of the Weiss family in the
removal westwards of all their factories, so as to prevent
their seizure by the invading Soviets (p.169).
On 26 June 1944, Becher met with a prominent
member of the Budapest Zionist'
Zionist Committee for Mutual
Assistance (the Waada), a Dr. Rezso Kastner, who proposed
that larger numbers of Hungarian Jews -— up to a million -—
should be allowed to emigrate, in return for for Kastner
supplying substantial supplies of money for the Germans
to use as they sought fit, presumably in the purchase of
war materials: trucks were suggested. Biss tells us that
Becher readily agreed to the scheme, and personally
arranged for a representative of the Budapest Jews to be
flown to neutral Turkey, where he could negotiate the
gathering together of the necessary finance with Jewish
interests in Allied countries. The man chosen to go was
Joel Brand, Biss's cousin, whom Biss variously describes
as an ex-Communist (p.33), a drunk (p.34), a Zionist
(p.35), a garment-manufacturer (p.36), a black-marketeer
(p.36), a smuggler (p.37), a philanderer who was living
with the mistress of one of Canaris's men (p.24) and a
shirker who had avoided compulsory labour service by
claiming to be diabetic (p.38). It was hardly surprising,
therefore, that once Brand had left Hungary, he was not
inclined to return, with or without the necessary funds.
According to Biss, Brand deliberately had himself arrested
by the British authorities in Syria, so that he would have
an adequate excuse for not returning to Budapest. (On the
whole, Brand would appear to have been a rather different
character from the heroic one portrayed in The Joel Brand
Story, shown on German TV in November 1964.)
But Becher was still determined to get the scheme under
way. He agreed to the despatch of a first train-load of Jews
to Switzerland, although the journey was a roundabout
one, involving several weeks' wait at the transit camp of
Bergen-Belsen. The emigrants consisted of prominent
rabbis and Zionist leaders, about fifty friends and relations
of Kastner's from his home town of Kluj, and the most
numerous group -— the Zionist Youth pioneers, who had
already trained at Nazi-sponsored agricultural camps for
colonising work in Palestine.
With Brand's failure to return from Turkey, Becher and
Kastner were obliged to do their own negotiating for the
trucks-for-Jews deal with Jewish interests
interests outside the
the Reich.
On 21 August 1944, the Nazi Becher and the Jew Jew Kastner
both travelled to the Austro-Swiss border at Sankt-
Margrethen, where they conversed, rather dramatically
across the actual frontier demarcation line, with Saly
Meyer, an elderly Jewish banker who was the Swiss repre- repre
sentative of the American Joint Distribution Committee,
the New York based Jewish charity. Meyer explained that
the Allied governments were not at all keen on allowing
US currency to go to the Nazis,
Nazis, even if it was for a 'good
cause', i.e. "rescuing Jews from extermination". However,
Biss explains that the Jews'
Jews' tactics were to string the Nazis
along, always promising that money would be coming
soon, in order to ensure the well-being of all the potential
~migr~s.
6migr£s.
Kastner's Waada was
Kastner's Waada was in
in constant
constant contact with the
contact with the leaders
leaders
of the Jewish community in Slovakia, Dr. Oskar Neumann
and Rabbi Michael Weissmandel, and they in turn were in in
touch with Polish Jewry, particularly with Alexander
32
32
Weissberg in Cracow, who kept an eye on nearby
Auschwitz. Biss admits that it was the Budapest Waada
which first fed the reports of "Auschwitz exterminations"
to the outside world, having collected information via
these contacts (p.65). Becher's office was even involved in
this network. In September 1944, after a minor Jewish
uprising in Slovakia, Becher's aide-de-camp SS Captain
Grlison
Griison accompanied Kastner and Biss to Bratislava in in
Slovakia, to see what could be done to aid the Jewish
community, which was suffering from the Nazis' vigorous
methods of restoring order.
Becher was also
Becher was also involved
involved in
in the Waada's links
the Waada's with the
links with the
War Refugee Board, the American government's committee
War
for the welfare of (chiefly Jewish) refugees, which was run
by Henry Morgenthau Jr., the leftist Jew who had the ear
of
of President
President Roosevelt.
Roosevelt. OnOn 55 November
November 1944
1944 Becher
Becher was
was
allowed into Switzerland for talks talks with Roswell D.
McClelland, a prominent American Quaker, who ran the
key Berne office of the War Refugee Board. McClelland
worked extremely closely with both the Jewish community
organisations and the OSS -— the Office of Strategic
Services which was later to become the CIA. (In fact, the
then head of the OSS in Switzerland, Allen Dulles, has
now become overall head of the CIA.) It was McClelland
who was able to fix up a Swiss visa for Becher, through
the US Embassy.
It was McClelland who several months previously had
been responsible for forwarding to Washington the dossier
on Auschwitz which was later to become the WRB Report,
and submitted as an important item of evidence at
'Niirnberg.
Niirnberg. The report, allegedly a compilation of interviews
with five anonymous Auschwitz escapees, was passed to
McClelland by Rabbi Weissmandel, the Slovakian Jewish
leader who worked closely with Kastner and Biss. Kastner
and Biss, in turn, liaised with another WRB agent in
Budapest, Raoul Wallenberg, a Jewish member of the
Swedish diplomatic staff. Relations were so cosy, it seems,
that Biss's chauffeur (!)(!) was allowed to park Biss's new
American car (!)
(!)in
in the Swedish Embassy yard in Budapest.
(On page 184 of his book, Biss complains bitterly that
after'
after the Soviet occupation, the car was appropriated.)
Wallenberg's disappearance at the end of the war remains
a mystery: he was last seen heading for the Soviet Army
HQ in Budapest to complain about the exactions of the
Red Army.
Becher met McClelland at the Hotel Savoy-Baur-en-ville,
near Zurich, after visiting Berlin for last minute instructions
from Himmler. The minutes of the McClelland-Becher
interview remain to this day one of the tightest-kept
secrets of the entire war, although the actual meeting itself
is quite well known to historians. According to Biss (whose
book incidentally is not just badly translated into
fractured English but also extremely chaotically written)
Becher agreed with the American that the "exterminations
would be immediately stopped", in return for Washington
giving permission for the transfer of cash fromfrom the Joint
Distribution Committee to a Nazi bank account in
Switzerland.
During the Niirnberg evidence, Becher claimed that
when he reported back to Himmler, the Reichsfiihrer
suddenly flew into a rage, and yelled that "the Americans
wanted to stop things that had never existed". Then,
"yielding to Becher's prudent advice" Himmler issued a
written order to Pohl and Kaltenbrunner stating, "With
immediate effect I forbid all extermination of Jews and I
order, on the contrary, that care be taken of those weak or
sick. I hold you personally responsible even in in cases where
this order may not be strictly carried out by subaltern
authorities." However, no example of this damning
document waswas produced at Niirnberg; Becher's text was
was
his own memory. Indeed, in
drawn purely from his Terre
in La Terre
Retrouv~e of 15 December 1960, Dr. Kubovy the
Retrouvie
director of the World Centre of Contemporary Jewish
Documentation in Tel-Aviv admitted that there is in
extermin-
existence not one single mention or order for extermin
ations from either Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich or Goring.
Kastner too sent evidence to the IMT at Niirnberg, in in
the form of affidavit 2605-PS, written in London and
submitted on 13 September 1945. Although Kastner
himself had never seen a gas-chamber or an extermination
camp, hehe regarded himself as an 'authority' on the exter
exter-
mination programme by virtue of his intelligence-gathering
operations inin the Waada and his his intimate contacts with
Becher and Wisliceny. But Kastner was was also at pains to
portray Becher as a "good Nazi" — - a point of view
view for
was later to pay the ultimate penalty.
which he was
After the Niirnberg Trials, all all the characters in
in this
bizarre tale went their separate ways.
Kastner went to live in Switzerland, and in 1946
Rapport du Comit6
hurriedly threw together a dossier, the Rapport Comite
d 'Assistance de Budapest, which he
juif d'Assistance he presented to the
following year's Zionist Congress held inin Israel. The report
was later published in book formyform~ with "certain modifi
modifi-
cations", as Rapport Kastner, edited by Ernest Landau at
Munich in 1961. In 1947, Kastner went to Niirnberg in
person, to become "Gen. Taylor's adviser on matters
relating to the extermination of the Jews", at the AMT.
Later on, Kastner emigrated to Israel, where he continued
to publish his Hungarian language newspaper Uj Kelet. He
Uj Relet.
joined Ben Gurion's Mapai party, eventually becoming the
Prime Minister's press officer. But during the parliamentary
election campaign of 1954, his political adversaries taunted
him about his former contacts with the Nazis, particularly
his close relationship with Becher, claiming that there had
been financial irregularities and that Kastner had used the
deal to allow his family and friends to escape. Kastner sued
for libel and won a farthing damages. He was about to
appeal, with the support of the Israeli government, when
he was gunned down in a Jerusalem street by "a young
zealot" (in fact a Mossad agent). Nine days later, on 12
March 1957, he died in hospital.
Andr~
Andr£ Biss was privileged enough to be allowed out of
Soviet-occupied Hungary at the end of the War. He went
to Switzerland and then Austria, where he gathered funds
with the intention of returning to Budapest to finance the
welfare of destitute Jews. However he was arrested by the
French government of occupation, and spent two months
in prison on a charge of fraudulent currency dealings. Biss
settled down in Switzerland, although he made an excursion
to Israel in 1961 with the intention of giving evidence
against Adolf Eichmann. However, when Biss refused to
omit from his evidence any mention of the Kastner-Becher
negotiations (since the subject was still a hot potato for
the Mapai party) Prosecutor Hausner decided to do
without Biss's evidence. Biss commented, "What had
started by being just and objective became an act of
collective accusation against the whole German people"
(p.191). Biss explained this strange Israeli aversion to
publicising a "Jewish victory over Eichmann" (the
successful convoys) by saying that such a victory "had no
place in the official version of the Jewish martyrology,
that is
that is to
to say,
say, the
the total
total extermination
extermination of
of Jews
Jews in
in central
central
Europe" (p.194, original emphasis).
Joel Brand, Biss's wayward cousin who had managed to
33
get
get himself locked up in
in the security of a British jail
jail for
for'
the duration of the war, also turned up at the Eichmann
May
Trial. He declared to the court that in the month of May
1944, when the German troops entered Budapest, he was
under "preventive arrest", when in in fact he
he had abandoned
his family and was co-habiting with a dancing-girl. Brand
tried to compensate for his his erratic behaviour on the
Istanbul mission by deriding the entire scheme and heaping
heaping.
abuse on both Kastner (even though dead) and Becher.
Although Brand had only met Becher once before he left
he .left
for Turkey, he he was still able to describe Becher as "a warwar
criminal of the worst sort". However, Brand's low regard
for Becher had not prevented him from going to see see
Becher immediately after the war and asking him for a
certificate to use in
in his
his claim for compensation being heard
in the German courts at that time. Biss reckoned that there
were no less than seven false statements in Brand's
evidence, and applied to both the Minister of Justice and
the Prime Minister himself to have Brand arrested for
perjury; but to no avail. Biss also assessed that out of of the
the
102 witnesses called by the prosecution, at least 90 of
them had not only never met Eichmann, but until the end
of the war had never even heard his name.
Dr. Alexander Weissberg, the Cracow Jew who kept an an
eye on nearby Auschwitz, ended up doing scientific
research in the USSR after the war. He was deported
during the Stalin purges, and in 1956 published his version
of the Trucks-for-Jews deal under the title Die Die Geschicte
Geschicte
von Joel Brand (Cologne, 1956). It was this eulogy of
von
Brand which formed the basis for aa German TV film in
1964.
1964.
Rabbi Weissmandel, the leader of the Slovakian Jews,
who was responsible for the collating, and probably
writing, of the Auschwitz dossier published by the War
Refugee Board, emigrated to the United States after the
war and set up an orthodox Talmudic seminary in New
York State.
York State. He
He died
died in
in November
November 1957.
1957. However
However his
his war
war
memoirs, which dealt in depth with his contacts with
Kastner, Becher and McClelland, were published post-
umously in Hebrew in 1960.
Dr. J. Oskar Neumann, Weissmandel's colleague in
Bratislava, also put his memoirs into print, as 1m Im Schatten
des Todes, published in Tel-Aviv in 1956.
Even though Becher had taken the "correct" line at
Niirnberg, he himself was held in prison while the
authorities decided what to do with him. In 1947 he faced
a de-Nazification tribunal, and was released, chiefly thanks
to a supporting affidavit from his old friend Rezso
Kastner. It was this affidavit which eventually caused
Kastner to be accused of being a "Nazi-lover" in Israel.
The
The International
International Military
Military Tribunal:
Tribunal: from
from Left
Left to
to Right:
Right: Falco
Falco and
and
de Vabres (France), Parker and Biddle (USA), Lawrence and Birkett
(Britain), Nikitschenko and Volchkow (USSR).
 THE SENTENCES
THE one John C. Woods, a sergeant in the US Army, who in
1952 was himself mysteriously electrocuted on the remote
COUNT 11 22 33 44 SENTENCE island of Eniwetok. An article in Stag mag~ine
magazine (Vol. 3,
No.1)
No. 1) by the official US Army undertaker, who was
Goring G
G G
G G
G G
G Death present at the executions, states that "The Jewish-
Hess G
G G
G I I Life imprisonment
American boy in charge of the execution" (of Julius
Streicher) "let him strangle horribly for a long, long
Ribbentrop G
G G
G G
G G
G Death minute". Several of those executed also suffered face and
head injuries, as they struck the edges ofof the trap door
Keitel
Keitel G
G G
G G
G G
G Death opening, on the way down.
Kaltenbrunner II G
G G
G Death Streicher was the·
the only one of the ten to have fought
physically with his executioners. When he was finally
Rosenberg G
G G
G G
G G
G Death subdued he gave a Heil Hitler salute before he died.
Kempner had authoritatively predicted inin the New York
York
Frank I G
G G
G Death Times that the Nazi war criminals would be buried in
Frick
Frick I G
G G
G G
G Death unmarked graves to "avoid fanatical pilgrimages by still
ardent Nazis". In actual fact, the ultimate procedure was
Streicher I G
G Death even more hysterical and paranoid. The ten bodies, plus
Funk
Goring's, were displayed to waiting newsmen (and gory
I G
G G
G G
G Life imprisonment
photographs splashed over the next day's sensationalist
Schacht
Schacht I I Acquitted press, except in Britain where they were considered too
disturbing).
Donitz I G
G G
G 10 years The bodies were then disguised in US Army uniforms,
Raeder
Raeder G
G G
G G
G Life imprisonment
taken secretly to Dachau and cremated there; their ashes
being sifted into the nearby River Isar.
Schirach I G
G 20 years
Sauckel I I G
G G
G Death THE IMPRISONMENTS
THE IMPRISONMENTS
Jodi
Jodl G
G G
G G
G G
G Death
Seven of the Niirnberg defendants received terms of
Bormann
Bormann I G
G G
G Death imprisonment. On 18 July 1947, the seven were transferred
in a Dakota aircraft to Berlin-Gatow, and each prisoner,
von Papen I I Acquitted
handcuffed to a US
US soldier, was loaded into an RAF bus
Seyss-Inquart I G
G G
G G
G Death with barred windows, and taken to Spandau prison. The
seven
seven were:
were:
Speer I I G
G G
G 20 years
Name Age (in 1947) Sentence Prison No.
No
Neurath G
G G
G G
G G
G 15 years
Baldur von
von Schirach 40 20 years 11
Fritzche II I II Acquitted Karl Donitz 56
56 10 years 22
Konstantin von
von
Reich Cabinet Not
Not criminal
criminal Neurath 74
74 15 years 33
General Staff &
& Erich
Erich Raeder
Raeder 71
71 life
life 44
Not
Not criminal
criminal
Albert Speer 42 20 years 55
High Command 42
Walter Funk
Walter 57
57 life
life 66
Leadership Corps Partly criminal Rudolf Hess 53 life 77
Gestapo Party criminal Spandau, an ugly red-brick civilian prison, built in 1876,
SD Partly criminal was to be run in rotation by each of the Great Powers.
Britain's months would be January, May and September;
G = Guilty
G France was in charge in February, June and October; the
II =
= Innocent
Innocent USSR in March, July and November, and the USA in
AA blank space indicates that no charge was made on that count. April, August and December. When the Soviets' tum turn came
round, they would be allowed to march their guard into
West Berlin from the Eastern sector -— a privilege which
THE EXECUTIONS
THE EXECUTIONS they have closely guarded to this day.
When the prisoners arrived, they were stripped stark
Goring escaped the hangman's noose by committing naked and paraded into a medical office where all their
suicide shortly before the scheduled time for execution. orifices were examined to make sure they were not con- con
The other ten were hanged on 15 October 1946, which cealing capsules of poison. Initially, the prisoners were
just happened to coincide with the Jewish feast-day of not allowed to speak to either the guards or their
Hoshana
Hoshana Raba.
Raba. colleagues. Their diet was kept to the bare minimum
The executions took place in virtual secrecy, for they necessary for survival, until.
until their condition began to
were deliberately bungled. The prisoners were given a deteriorate. The Americans decided to put up the ration,
short drop so that their necks would not be instantaneously but the Soviets returned them to minimum when they
broken and they would strangle slowly. The official timing took over guard duty. The prisoners were not allowed to
between the springing of the trap and the extinction of life receive newspapers, with the exception of a weekly church
in the ten victims were Minutes 18, 24, 13, 10, 10~ 12, 14,
24,13,10,101/? paper. Prisoners were not allowed to either sit or lie on
14, 16 and 11. The man in charge of the executions was their beds during the day.
34
34
 Six concrete
Six concrete watch-towers
watch-towers were were built
built around
around the the prison
prison insist
insist on
on keeping
keeping him
him incarcerated
incarcerated so
so that
that they
they can
can have
have
perimeter, and
perimeter, and aa 4000-volt
4000-volt electric
electric fence
fence ran ran thethe whole
whole continued
continued military
military access
access to
to West
West Berlin.
Berlin.
way round. ItIt was
way round. was decided
decided that that thethe prison's
prison's guillotine
guillotine
could be
could be dismantled,
dismantled, and and the the execution
execution chamber chamber was was
instead turned
instead turned into into an an operating
operating theatre,theatre, so so that
that thethe THE AMERICAN
THE AMERICAN MILITARY
MILITARY TRIBUNAL
TRIBUNAL (AMT)
(AMT)
prisoners would
prisoners would not not have
have to to go go out
out of of thethe prison
prison for for
hospitalisation.
hospitalisation. After
After thethe International
International Military
Military Tribunal
Tribunal hadhad reached
reached
The
The prisoners
prisoners were were all all obliged
obliged to to do do prison
prison work,work, its
its foregone
foregone conclusions,
conclusions, each
each of of the
the participant
participant nations
nations
although itit was
although was debatable
debatable whether
whether this this waswas part
part ofof their
their decided
decided to to go
go their
their own
own wayway andand hold
hold unilateral
unilateral trials
trials in
in
sentence. The
sentence. The Soviets
Soviets continually
continually insisted insisted that that the the their own
their own zones
zones ofof occupation.
occupation.
sentence had
sentence had implied
implied compulsory
compulsory hard hard labour
labour withwith solitary
solitary As
As Niirnberg
Niirnberg waswas in
in the
the American
American zone,zone, they
they _were abl~
were able
confinement. Each
confinement. Each prisoner
prisoner was was in in fact
fact allowed
allowed one one visitor
visitor to continue
to continue with
with their
their trials
trials at
at the
the same
same Palace
Palace of of Justice
Justice
for 15 minutes
for 15 minutes everyevery twotwo months,
months, although
although Hess Hess always
always where the
where the NaziNazi leaders
leaders had had justjust been
been tried.
tried. This
This
refused to
refused to allow
allow hishis family
family to to see
see him
him in in such
such aa miserable
miserable undoubtedly gave
undoubtedly gave their
their trials,
trials, rather
rather than
than those
those ofof the
the
state. Von
state. Von Schirach's
Schirach's wife wife divorced
divorced him him quitequite early
early on on other Allies,
other that extra
Allies, that extra seal
seal of
of 'authority'.
'authority'. Indeed,
Indeed, with
with the
the
during his
during his confinement.
confinement. passing
passing of of time,
time, many
many people,
people, including
including historians,
historians, have
have
As
As the
the years
years passed,
passed, itit was inevitable
inevitable that that some
some of of the
the started to
started to confuse
confuse the
the two
two totally
totally separate
separate trials,
trials, and
and oneone
warders
warders took pity pity on on their charges.
charges. When When a bottle of of wine
wine can sometimes
can sometimes readread about
about thethe American
American trials
trials at
at Niirnberg
Niirnberg
was smuggled
was smuggled to to thethe prisoners,
prisoners, and and they
they got got aa little
little merry,
merry, being described
being described as "International".
"International". This is incorrect.
incorrect. There
There
Soviets immediately
the Soviets immediately suspected the communion communion wine in in was only one one international trial:,trial:. that of the 21 Nazi
the prison chapel, which
the which was promptly banned. When a bar bar leaders.
leaders.
of chocolate was found in Neurath's Neurath 's cell, cell, questions were The Americans held twelve subsequent trials at Niirnberg, N\imberg,
asked in in the House of Commons about this unforgiveable involving 199 defendants including Alfried Krupp, whom
involving
misdemeanour by by Arthur Lewis (still (still the) Labour MP for for the Americans had wanted to try during the IMT in in place
West Ham
West Ham North.
North. his hospitalised father, Gustav. The American Prosecutor
of his
But as the older prisoners' health deteriorated rapidly, Jackson had claimed that this was aa "trial for posterity".
the prospect of of some of of them dying in in prison had had toto be But Sir Norman Birkett strongly opposed this suggestion,
taken into account. Coffins were made for each of them, which he called "shocking" and pointed out that this was was
from measurements used for their prison clothes. But not a game of football in in which a reserve could be fielded.
before such a contingency should arise, out of the blue the The younger Krupp had to wait until the AMT for his
Soviets agreed that the chronically ill Neurath should be Niimberg 'justice', therefore. He
share of Niirnberg He was sentenced to
released. On 6 November 1954, he was released into the 12 years' imprisonment, but was released after 7, and had had
care of his relatives, with whom he lived for two years his confiscated property returned to him.
before dying of asthma. There is not room here to go into each of the twelve
The next name on the list of likely deaths was was Raeder's. cases inin great detail, but we will examine in some depth
But as the rumours began to spread of his impending those cases which represent the greatest examples of
release, a chorus of reaction was encountered from certain intrigue.
intrigue.
elements. In the Sunday Despatch of 11.9.55, Lord Russell, By August 1946 the AMT staff had drawn up a list of
one of the British legal advisers at Niimberg; Niirnberg, contributed close to 5000 names of Nazis whom they wished to arraign.
an article headed "Would You Set These Villains Free?" The list proved to be too ambitious, and had to be cut
Beneath a picture of Admiral Raeder was the caption down because oflackof lack of "time, staff and money". Although
"Sink-at-Sight Admiral". However, as Veale points out in an attempt was made to retain some kind of "balance"
a most cynical commentary on page 231 of Crimes Crimes with respect to the types of offence and occupation of
Veiled, not a line of the article relates to any of
Discreetly Veiled, the defendants, sometimes the rationale used in deleting
the 'war criminals' pictured at the top of the page. Veale names was rather arbitrary, to say the least. A cut-off
relates that he wrote to the Sunday Despatch editor to ask
relates. point was drawn across a list of names according to "the
him to correct some of the wilder inaccuracies in Russell's size of the defendants' dock in the particular courtroom
article, such as the untrue allegations that the Spandau which
which waswas to
to be
be used.
used." "
prisoners' sentences were subject to continual review by The trials were referred to variously according to the
a Review Board, but the letter was never published. case number, the name of the major defendant or a
Despite the
Despite the sensationalist
sensationalist outpourings
outpourings of of the SundaySunday descriptive title, as as follows:
tabloids, Admiral Raeder Raeder waswas released fifteen days later on on Case
Case No.
No. US vs.
vs. Description
Description AMT
AMT vols.
vols.
26
26 November
November 1955, 1955, on on account
account of of his
his rapidly
rapidly deteriorating
deteriorating 11 Brandt
Brandt Medical
Medical case
case 1,2
1,2
health.
health. He He died
died shortly
shortly afterwards.
afterwards. 22 Milch
Milch Milch case
Milch case 22
A year
'clemency' on
'clemency'
later it
on the
was
the part
Donitz's
A year later it was Donitz's tum,
part ofof the
turn, but
the Allies.
but not
Allies. Donitz
not because
Donitz had
because of
had served
of any
any
served hishis
!5
3
4
5
~~~tter
Alstotter
Pohl
Flick
Flick
~~s~~~~~:::ion
Justice case
Concentration camps
Businessmen
Businessmen case
case
camps case
case t
3
5, 66
66
10
10 year
year sentence
sentence to to the
the minute,
minute, at at the
the Soviets'
Soviets' insistence.
insistence. 66 Krauch
Krauch I.G.
I.G. Farben
Farben case
case 7,8
7, 8
Funk
Funk waswas released
released in in 1957
1957 after
after aa period
period of of severe
severe illness.
illness. 77 List
List Hostages case
Hostages case 99
Speer
Speer andand Schirach
Schirach both both served
served theirtheir entire
entire 20 20 year
year 88 Greifelt
Greifelt RuSHA case
RuSHA case 4, 55
4,
sentences
sentences and and were
were released
released on on 30 30 September
September 1966. 1966. 99 Ohlendorf
Ohlendorf Einsatzgruppen case
Einsatzgruppen case 44
10
10 Krupp
Krupp Krupp case
Krupp case 99
Rudolf
Rudolf Hess Hess still
still remains
remains in in Spandau
Spandau today, today, the the sole
sole 11
11 Weizsacker
Weizsacker Wilhelmstrasse
Wilhelmstrasse oror 12.14
12-14
prisoner
prisoner in in aa jail
jail built
built for
for 600.
600. He He isis looked
looked afterafter byby aa MiQistries
Ministries case
case
prison
prison force
force of of 3838 soldiers,
soldiers, 22 22 cooks
cooks and and sundry
sundry cleaners
cleaners 12
12 von Loeb
von Loeb High Command
High Command case case 10, 11
10,11
and
and waitresses.
waitresses. The The cost,
cost, nownow borneborne by by the
the German
German The official title of the trial summaries is: Trials of
The official title of the trial summaries is: Trials of War
War
government,
government, isis in in the
the region
region of of aa million
million Deutschmarks
Deutschmarks aa Criminals
Criminals Before
Before the
the Nuremberg
Nuremberg Military
Military Tribunals
Tribunals Under
Under
year.
year. There
There isis no no doubt
doubt thatthat thethe Western
Western powers powers wouldwould Control
Control Council Law No.
Council Law 10 October
No. 10 1946 -April
October 1946 -April 1949,
1949,
have
have liked
liked to to have
have released
released him him long
long ago,ago, butbut the
the Soviets
Soviets and the
and the volumes
volumes are
are published
published under
under the
the imprint
imprint of
of the
the US
US
35
35
Government, Washington, at various dates between 1946
and 1949. ' The main defendant in AMT 4, Oswald Pohl, had been
The AMT administration functioned through two
separate organisations. One was the collection of Tribunal
members -— the judges, who functioned through a
Secretariat headed by a Secretary General. The judges were
recruited in the US by the Department of the Army. There
were three or more judges at anyone
any one trial.
The second organisation was the Office, Chief of Counsel
for War Crimes (Telford Taylor) which had come into
existence on 24 October 1946; the same day the IMT
executions were carried out.
out. It
It filed
filed its
its first
first indictment
indictment
against the second-rank Nazis the next day.
Taylor, who had been an associate trial counsel at the
IMT, really took over where Jackson left off, as the AMT
trials were held in the same Niirnberg courthouse.
Taylor was responsible for almost everything except
the appointment of the judges. His Office was also charged
with determining who should or should not be tried, what
the charges should be and how prisoners should be
disposed of if they were not to be charged. The Office also
took over the functions of the Niirnberg staff, and was
formally responsible for interrogations, field work,
examination of documents, court reporting, and translating
and interpreting.
However, as with the earlier IMT hearings, there is a
considerable amount of evidence to show that it was in
fact the War Crimes Branch which made the running, not
the Chief of Counsel.
The new head of the War Crimes Branch was Col. David
"Mickey" Marcus, a fanatical Zionist whose career is even
now shrouded in mystery. We do know that Marcus was a
West Point graduate who before the War was Commissioner
of Corrections in New York. As an army officer during the
War he helped draft the German and Italian surrender
terms, and he also acted as a legal aide at the Potsdam
conference in the summer of 1945. He appears to have had
a real importance quite incommensurate with his relatively
common rank of Colonel, since we are told that during the
War he had made a "favourable impression on F.D.R.
War F.D.R ....
. ..
he was one of the anonymous handful who charted
American policy behind the scenes."
Marcus' precise position was that of Chief of the Planning
Branch of the Army's Civil Affairs Division, which had
been set up under General Hilldring in 1943 to prepare for
military government in (occupied) Germany.
In fact it was because of his responsibilities and
experience at the CAD that Marcus later became "number
three man in making American policy" in in the American
zone.
zone.
in 1946 Hilldring pulled him out of his
Early in his military
government position and assigned him to take over from
Brig. Gen. John M. Weir as head of the War Crimes Branch,
Brig.
which had been transferred from the JAG (legal) Dept. to
CAD (government) Dept. on 4 March 1946.
the CAD
According to Josiah du Bois, who headed the AMT
trial number 66 against I.G.
LG. Farben, and later described the
case inin The Devil's Chemists, Marcus had been specifically
appointed in order "to take over the mammoth task of
selecting hundreds of judges, prosecutors and lawyers" for
the AMT and Tokyo trials.
His appointment was effective as
His as of 18 February 1946,
but he spent aa few months sizing up the situation in Japan
before moving back to the Washington head office of the
War Crimes
War Crimes Branch
Branch in
in June.
June.
36
36
.AMT4
AMT 4
chief disbursing officer of the German Navy until 1934,
when Himmler requested his transfer to the SS. For eleven
years he was the principal administrative chief of the entire
SS in his position as head of the SS Economy and Adminis-
Adminis
trative Office. After 1941 he and his office were concerned
with the industrial productivity of the concentration
camps.
camps.
Pohl was an extremely sensitive and intellectual individual
who was reduced to a broken man in the course of his trial.·
trial.
As Senator McCarthy pointed out on 20 May 1949, Pohl
had signed some incriminating statements only after being
subjected to torture, including having his face smeared
with faeces. His torturers managed to extract from him the
bogus admission that he had seen a gas chamber at
Auschwitz in 1944. The prosecution strenuously pressed
this point, but Pohl successfully repudiated it. The aim of
the prosecution was to depict this dejected man as a fiend
in human form, an impression which was totally at
variance with the testimony of those who knew him.
One such character witness was Heinrich Hopker, an
anti-Nazi friend of Pohl's wife who had been in frequent
contact with him during the latter part of the war. Hopker
noted that Pohl was essentially a serene and mild-mannered
person. During a visit to Pohl in the spring of 1944,
Hopker was brought into contact with some concentration
camp inmates who were working on a local project outside
their camp. He noted that the prisoners worked in a
leisurely manner and relaxed atmosphere without any
pressure from their guards. Hopker declared that Pohl did
not hold an emotional attitude towards the Jews, and did
not mind his wife entertaining her Jewish friend
Annemarie Jacques at their home. By the beginning of
1945, Hopker was fully convinced that the administrator
of the concentration camps was a humane, conscientious
and dedicated servant to his work, and he was astonished
when he heard later in 1945 of the accusations being made
against Pohl and his colleagues.
Frau Pohl noted that her husband retained his serenity
in the face of adversity until March 1945, when he visited
the camp at Bergen-Belsen at the time of the typhus
epidemic there. Hitherto the camp had been a model of
cleanliness and order, but the chaotic conditions at the
close of
close of the
the war
war had
had reduced
reduced itit to
to aa state
state of
of extreme
extreme
hardship. Pohl, who was unable to alleviate conditions
there because of the desperate stage which the war had
reached by that time, was deeply affected by the
experience, and according to his his wife, never regained his
his
former state of composure.
Dr. Alfred Seidl, the highly respected lawyer, who acted
as principal defence counsel at the IMT, went to work
as
passionately to secure the acquittal of Pohl. Seidl had been
a personal friend of the accused for many years, and was
thoroughly convinced of his innocence. The American
judgement which condemned Pohl did not prompt Seidl
to change his opinion in the slightest. He declared that
the prosecution had failed to produce a single piece of
valid evidence against him.
One of the most eloquent defences of Oswald Pohl was
made by SS SS Lieutenant Colonel Kurt Schmidt-Klevenow, aa
in Pohl's office. However, for some odd reason,
legal officer in
the affidavit which Schmidt-Klevenow made on 88 August
1947 has
1947 has been
been omitted
omitted from the records
from the records of
of the
the AMT.
AMT. The
The
affidavit stated that Pohl had given his fullest support to
Judge Konrad Morgen of the Reich Reich·Criminal
Criminal Police Office,
whose job it was to investigate irregularities in the concen-
 tration camps. Pohl had been so disturbed by brutalities
at-Buchenwald
at Buchenwald camp that he pressed for the death penalty
against the camp commandant Koch, who was arraigned
before a public SS court on a charge of misconduct.
Schmidt-Kleven
Schmidt-Klevenow ow also explained that Pohl was instru instru-
mental in arranging for local police chiefs to share in the
jurisdiction of concentration camps, and took personal
~tive in
initiative in securing strict discipline on the part of camp
personnel.
The defence were also able to show that the prosecution's
main item of evidence was falsified. The prosecution had
presented an affidavit, which had already been used in the
Kaltenbrunner trial, written by one Alois Hollriegel, a
member of the staff at Mauthuasen concentration. camp
concentration»camp
in Austria. The affidavit claimed that a mass gassing
operation had taken place at the camp. The defence were
not only able to show that Hollriegel had signed the
affidavit under torture but also that all deaths at the camp
were systematically checked by the local police authorities.
The deaths were also entered on a camp register, which
was produced in evidence. The defence also obtained
inmates at Mauthausen
numerous affidavits from former inmates
(a prison camp chiefly for for criminals) testifying as to the
humane and orderly conditions which prevailed there.
Yet another unreliable witness in Case
Yet Case 44 was one
one SS
Major Wolfgang Grosch. Grosch was supposed to confirm
that the shower-baths at Auschwitz were in reality gas-
chambers. This he did in his affidavit of 20 February and
5 March 1947 (NO-2154). However the day before he was
due to testify in person at the trial, he retracted all these
statements, and denied any knowledge of gas-chambers.
(This is mentioned in his interrogator's affidavit NO-4406).
(This
But when it came to the crunch, he again changed his
mind, and agreed that there had been gas-chambers after
all. This testimony should appear in the AMT transcript,
pages 3565 -— 3592 for 27 and 28 June 1947, but for some
.odd reason these pages are missing from some editions.
Pohl was hanged in 1951, after he had extended his life
by several years by giving
giving prosecution evidence at various
other war
war crimes trials.
AMT 66 I.G. Farben
The Niirnberg case against the staff of I.G. Farben was
chiefly based on the giant chemical combine's installation
near Oswiecim (Auschwitz) in Poland.
It was claimed that I.G. Farben had been party to the
maltreatment of internees, the use of slave labour, and the
extermination of
extermination of Jews.
Jews.
Contrary to popular opinion, Auschwitz was not
primarily a concentration camp. It was a giant industrial
complex, set up by the Germans to exploit the massive
resources of coal in this part of Polish Upper Silesia.
Auschwitz, or to use its Polish name, Oswiecim, was well
situated on the main Vienna—Cracow
Vienna-Cracow railway line. Three
rivers met there, which could be harnessed to provide
power for the plants, and a fourth river could be used to
1~41, the only camp of any
dispose of waste. Until 1941,
description there was an old Polish army barracks near the
town, which the Germans used to house Russian prisoners-
of-war. The camp became the nucleus for a rapid pro- pro
gramme of expansion. The Russian PoWs were used to
build the
the main industrial installation a mile half to
mile and a half
the North-West, at a place referred to both as Birkenau and
Auschwitz II. The Russians then went on to to build a third
complex, to the East of Auschwitz at a place called
Monowitz, and it was here that the I.G. Farben plant was
set up. Monowitz was also known as Auschwitz III. III. The
37
Hague Convention allowed for the use of prisoners-of-war
in
in non-military tasks. Indeed, there were a significant
number of British PoWs at Monowitz, who never com- com
plained about having to work (and incidentally, never saw
any evidence of "gas-chambers"). There were also a dozen
or more satellite installations, scattered throughout the
region, such as a farm at Harmensee and a botanical
laboratory at Raisko. One of the botanists on the staff of
Raisko, Thies Christopherson, has written an authoritative
description of Auschwitz, The Auschwitz Lie, which
denies the existence of gas-chambers or any other kind of
extermination programme. So too does Dr. Wilhelm
Staglich, who is now a Hamburg judge, but during the war
was stationed at an anti-aircraft battery at Osiek, six miles
south of
south of Auschwitz.
Auschwitz.
Once the industrial complex started operations, extra
labour had to be brought in to work in the various
processes. Besides the small numbers of British and
Russian PoWs, there were 20,000 workers at Auschwitz I,
35,000 at Birkenau and 15,000 at Monowitz. More than
half of these workers were free foreign workers who had
enlisted voluntarily for labour, just as guest workers travel
to Northern Europe from the Mediterranean today. Less
than thirty per cent of the workers at the Farben plant
were in the prisoner category, and the remaining twenty
per cent or so were ordinary German soldiers and civilians
like Christopherson.
The working hours at Auschwitz were those standard
for the German concentration camps; eleven hours a day,
six days a week. As a large 'company town', Auschwitz
was able to supply a wideWide range of recreational activities:
concerts;
concerts, cabaret, films and athletics. There was even a
brothel for the male prisoners.
The overall responsibility for the three camps lay with
the SS, whose main administrative office was located at
Auschwitz I, although there were other SS-run facilities,
such as a large hospital, at Birkenau. The SS rented out the
internees to I.G. Farben and the other factories in the area,
in an early form of 'lump-labour'. When the Farben plant
grew big enough to lay on their own ancillary facilities for
prisoners, naturally the fees paid to the SS were reduced.
This caused some friction between the two organisations,
especially as Farben tried to exploit the situation even
more by off-loading all their sick workers onto the SS SS
hospital at Birkenau.
However, the three camps were beset by difficulties
right from the start. The ground was extremely flat without
drainage; it was dotted with stagnant ponds which were a
breeding ground for malaria, even in peace time. Also the
original Russian prisoners had brought in typhus, which
was never properly eradicated, and at one point flared up
so much that all work at the camp had to be halted.
At Niirnberg, several witnesses claimed that they knew
of the extermination programme because they could not
escape the stench of burning flesh which pervaded
Auschwitz. However, both Christopherson and Stiiglich Staglich
were unaware of any such smell, apart from the occasional
unpleasant waft of scorched hooves and molten iron from
a nearby farrier's. Of course, this is not conclusive counter-
evidence in itself, since both men were stationed at
installations five or six miles away from the main complex.
What the
What the AMT overlooked was the rather obvious fact
that I.G. Farben was a chemicals industry, and chemicals
do tend to give off rather an unpleasant odour, particularly
in times when'
when pollution and emission controls were
unheard of. The I.G. Farben factory at Monowitz produced
artificial oil and the chemical process involved did give off
aa strong stench. There were also five blast furnaces and
five collieries in the vicinity, as
five as is
is confirmed by Reitlinger.
It is obvious that the witnesses at Niirnberg confused
It
(either deliberately or otherwise) the stench of industry
with the smell of "burning bodies".
Of course, this is is not to deny the existence of
erematoria. There
crematoria. There was
was aa crematorium
crematorium attached
attached to
to each
each of
of
the three camps to facilitate the disposal of the bodies of
workers who had died of typhus — - this was and is
is the most
sanitary means of disposal. After all, there were up to
200,000 inhabitants of the complex, and any city of that
size would have its own crematorium. Naturally people
died there; but not only prisoners. In fact the wife of
Christopherson's commander died there and was was cremated.
After the war, Christopherson was astounded to hear
allegations from Niirnberg and elsewhere that there had
been an enormous central crematorium with five chimneys
which processed 24,000 corpses a day. Christopherson was
not the only one who missed this amazing building.
According to Reitlinger, the building was demolished "in
full view of the camp" but only one witness, a certain Dr.
Bendel, has ever testified to this occurrence. Despite the
publication of pot-boilers such as Olga Lengyel's ludicrous
Five Chimneys, there is no proof whatsoever that this
building ever existed.
It is also true that there were 'gas-chambers' of a sort at
Auschwitz. These fell into two categories. Firstly, there
were underground gas-generation chambers, which
produced gas vapour from coke or coal, to be burnt
in the crematoria. The second was
upstairs in was a disinfection
chamber, where prisoners' clothes were deloused by
fumigating them with pesticide, in this particular case
Zyklon B. The US Army had similar chambers, but they
preferred to use the less-dangerous DDT. Lice were, of
course, the source of typhUS.
typhus.
All of these points are more fully documented in Butz's
Hoax of the Twentieth Century.
. - • ~* v» '•*' *f&£"$m%
Russian
Russian 'soap'
'soap1 evidence from
from Auschwitz. Such allegations bare
bare an
an uncanny resemblance to World War
turned into soap by the Huns.
38
38
The largest single item of evidence against I.G. Farben
which was submitted at Niirnberg was Document Book 89,
which had previously put in aa brief appearance at the IMT
as document 022-L. The document was an anonymous
as
report, supposedly based on the evidence of five five
Auschwitz escapees, which had ended up with the War War
Refugee Board in Washington. A A US
US Army Major Walsh
Walsh
had signed an affidavit on 14 December 1945, confirming
its authenticity. However, the Farben defence counsel
objected to the introduction of anonymous material, and
this objection was sustained by the court. But after some
more legal argument, the court decided to take aa rather
rather,
ambiguous "judicial note" of the document.
The anonymous escapees had apparently absconded
from Auschwitz where they had been on the hospital
staff. Their report first turned up in Geneva, claiming that
the Germans were conducting an extermination pro pro-
gramme, and using Jewish corpses to make fertiliser. Their
report was forwarded to Washington, where strenuous
efforts were made to authenticate the report, via the
Vatican. AA month later, in October 1942, the Vatican
replied that they could uncover no evidence to back up
the allegations. The report lay in the pending tray, until
bit by bit, more allegations in the same style started to
drift out of Nazi-occupied Europe.
Then in November 1944, over two years after the arrival
of the report, it was suddenly decided to publish it in
booklet form: German Extermination Camps: Auschwitz
and Birkenau. Although the imprint was the Executive
and
Office of the President, the actual impetus for publishing
came from the newly-formed War Refugee Board. The
WRB was run largely by Henry Morgenthau Jr., the
Secretary of the Treasury, later to publish the infamous
Morgenthau Plan for the pastoralisation of Germany. He
was assisted by Henry Dexter White (Weiss), later to be
exposed as a Soviet agent.
The general counsel of the War Refugee Board was one
War [I horror stories of Belgian
Belgian babies
Josiah Du Bois, who was later
Josiah later to become chief prosecution Embassy in Switzerland.
American Embassy Switzerland. The
The two went into
Niirnberg trial of I.G.
counsel at the Niirnberg I.G. Farben.
Farben. Du Bois' hiding for This 1964 version differs
for the rest of the war. This
career had been closely intertwined with that of the Soviet
career Soviet considerably from the 1945 evidence presented at at Niirnberg.
Niimberg.
agent White, Communist agent
White, as well as that of another Communist According to the affidavits of the investigation staff, the
William L. Ullmann.
William Ullmann. Du Bois was held in such high regard two escapees had given their story to a Protestant pastor,
by White White made him a witness of his will.
White that White an activist in the Hungarian
who had in turn passed it on to an Hungarian
State Department
Even after the report came out, the State resistance, who smuggled it to Italy.
remained sceptical about the validity of the extermination The 1964 evidence also differs from the 1945 version, in
The
rumours: "Stuff like this has been coming from Bern ever Niirnberg evidence gives
that the Niirnberg gives Wetzler
Wetzler as the source of
since 1942 ....
. . Don't forget, this is
is a Jew
Jew telling about the Frankfurt
the various tables of statistics, whereas at the Frankfurt
Jews ....
. . This is just a campaign by that Jew Morgenthau Jerus~em) we are
trial (and at the 1961 Eichmann trial in Jerusalem)
and his Jewish assistants." But by the time the WRB
and WRB Jeport
jeport Vrba who compiled the figures.
told that it was Vrba .
Niimberg document 022-L, so
was submitted as Niirnberg so much Latching on to his emergence as an an 'Auschwitz Expert',
supplementary 'evidence' of exterminations had been Vrba published a book JI Cannot Forgive in 1964; at at the
'uncovered' that the authenticity of the report was same time as his Frankfurt appearance. However, this book
'beyond doubt'. compounds the various contradictions even more. Also
When it was first published in Washington, the WRB Vrba provides no explanation for for the 16 year delay in in
report consisted of two anonymous reports, one written coming forward with his much-sought authentification for for
by "two young Slovakian Jews" and the other by "a Polish the WRB report.
major", all of whom had been inmates at Auschwitz from To date, the other three escapees —- the Polish major and
1942 until they escaped separately in 1944. There is also the other
the other two
two Slovakian
Slovakian Jews
Jews —
- have
have not
not been
been identified.
identified. '
a supplement said
said to have been written by two more say, the 12 Auschwitz I.G.
Needless to say, I.G. Farben defen
defen-
young Jews
Jews who escaped later in 1944. dants were found guilty. Two of them, Diirrfield and
and
Amongst the lurid fantasies given vent in the report is a Ambros, got eight years. Ter Meer got seven, and Krauch
description of an 'inauguration ceremony' for for the first
first and Biitefisch six. They were released in 1951.
Auschwitz crematorium in March 1943. The 'programme' One of the judges in in the case
case threw some interesting
consisted of the gassing and burning of 8000 Cracow Jews. light on the trial when he said that there were "too many
The audience, consisting of prominent guests from Berlin, Jews on the prosecution", although he was undoubtedly
were "extremely satisfied with the results." It seems rather taken to task by his superiors for daring to be so candid. In
odd that for
for such a gathering of prominent dignitaries, no actual fact, not only were the prosecution mostly Jewish,
are forthcoming.
names are but they were all good friends. Minskoff, one of the
The report tells of German interrogation of the block- prosecuting attorneys, had worked under chief prosecuting
mates of the two earlier escapees; in direct contradiction attorney Du Bois before, when they were both at the US
of the foreword, which states that the Germans were com- com Treasury. (Du Bois had also been legal counsel for the War
pletely unaware of the identity of the escapees; hence the Refugee Board.) In In 1952, Du Bois wrote a book about the
'necessity' for anonymity. trial, The DeviVs
Devil's Chemists, which makes interesting reading.
At several other points, the various accounts in the After Niirnberg, I.G. Farben was broken up into several
report are contradictory. The two Slovakian Jews say that smaller industries, all of which have since done remarkably
the Auschwitz crematoria started operation in February well, including Bayer Chemicals, BASF electronics and
1943, whereas the Polish major maintains that they Hoechst. Recently declassified U.S. State Department
commenced operation in autumn 1942. documents shed much light on a previously unexplored area
Although the 'necessity' for anonymity passed with the of '·Farben's
-Farben's activities. The documents, now in the U.S.
defeat of the Nazis, the 'authors' of the report were not National Archives, reveal that the American conglomerate
exactly rapid in their endeavours to claim responsibility Du Pont/General Motors together with Standard Oil (later
for this very interesting document. It was not until the Esso, now Exxon) maintained extensive contacts with
trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961 that the two young Farben during the War. A A fascinating article about these
Slovakian Jews finally acquired identities -— 16 years after contacts, including actual trade with Nazi Germany,
the Nazi threat had passed! The prosecution stated that appeared in the "men's magazine" Penthouse, 1976, Vol. II,
magazine"Penthouse,
they were actually Alfred Wetzler, by then a civil servant No.3.
No. 3. But the authority on the matter is Joseph Borkin's
in (Communist) Czechoslovakia, and Rudolf Vrba (alias Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben (N.Y. 1978).
Rosenberg, alias
alias Rosenthal), a hospital biochemist in AMT
AMT 7 7
Cardiff. Surprisingly, the WRB report was rejected by the Immediately
Immediately after
after the
the sentences
sentences had
had been
been announced
announced in
in
Jerusalem court, on the grounds that there were too many Case 7, the presiding judge, Charles F. Wennerstrom,
Wennerstrum, gave
contradictions in the statistics (this did not seem to an
an outspoken
outspoken statement
statement toto aa Chicago
Chicago Tribune
Tribune reporter,
reporter,
prevent the admission of reams of other contradictory attacking
attacking the
the trials:
trials:
documents). Late in the trial, the prosecution produced If
If II had
had known
known seven
seven months
months ago
ago what
what II know
know today,
today, II would
would
a hastily written affidavit from
from Vrba in Britain, explaining never
never have
have come
come here.
here.
that the figures
figures were rather confused because they were Obviously, the victor in any war is not the best judge of the war
not
not his
his own.
own. However,
However, this
this too
too was
was rejected
rejected by
by the
the court,
court, crime guilt .. .. .. The prosecution has failed
failed to maintain objectivity
on aloof fromfrom vindictiveness,
vindictiveness, aloof
aloof from
from personal
personal ambitions
ambitions for
for
on the
the grounds
grounds that
that Vrba
Vrba should
should have
have been
been at
at the
the trial
trial in
in aloof
convictions . . .
person. The whole atmosphere here is unwholesome. Linguists were
Vrba did manage to put in an appearance at the needed . . .. .. Lawyers, clerks, interpreters and researchers were
Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt in 1964, as did Wetzler. employed who became Americans only in recent years, years, whose back-
back
According
According toto their
their evidence,
evidence, they
they escaped
escaped from
from Auschwitz
Auschwitz grounds were
grounds were imbedded
imbedded inin Europe's
Europe's hatreds
hatreds and
and prejudices
prejudices ...
...
Most of the evidence in the trials was documentary, selected from from
to Czechoslovakia, where they gave their report to Jewish the
the large
large tonnage
tonnage ofof captured
captured records.
records. The
The selection
selection was
was made
made by
by
elders, including aa Rabbi Weissmandel who distributed it
elders, the prosecution.
prosecution. The defence had access only to those documents
to varioUs
various agencies throughout Europe,
Europe, including
including the which the prosecution
prosecution considered material to the case.
39
Artefacts made from human skin were produced by
by Russians at Nurnberg,
Niirnberg, but euen
even Jewish holocaust experts expressed doubts as to their
authenticity.

Our tribunal introduced a rule of procedure that when the "Yes, but what does that have to do with it?"
prosecution introduced an an excerpt from a document, the entire
document should be be made available to the defence forfor presentation Foust later revealed that this was the second instance of
as evidence. The prosecution protested vigorously. Gen. Taylor tried Army interference with the filing of his stories. He had
out of court to call a meeting of the presiding judges to rescind this earlier been picked up by Army agents for interrogation
order. It was not the attitude of any conscientious officer of the
It was after a previous story had been sent.
court seeking full justice.
Also abhorrent to the American sense of justice is the prosecution's
reliance upon self-incriminating statements made by the defendants AMT 9: Ohlendorf -— Einsatzgruppen
while prisoners for
while prisoners for more
more than
than 2V£ years and
2% years and repeated
repeated interrogations
interrogations One case
One case during
during the
the Niirnberg
Niirnberg Trials
Trials which
which receives
recel'ves little
ll'ttle
without presence of counsel.
The lack of appeal leaves me with a feeling that justice
The lack of appeal leaves me with a feeling that justice has has been
been attention
attention today is that
today is that of
of the
the Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen -— the
the Action
Action
denied.. .. ..
denied Groups which were set up by Hitler in 1941 to suppress
The Chicago Tribune
The Chicago reporter, Hal
Tribune reporter, Hal Foust,
Foust, sentsent the
the guerilla activity in
in German-occupied Russia. It was alleged
Wennerstrum
Wennerstrum storystory to
to Berlin
Berlin for
for transmission
transmission to to Chicago
Chicago by the Soviets at Niirnberg
Niimberg that the Action Groups operated
on aa wireless
on wireless channel
channel which
which waswas supposedly
supposedly free free from
from as roving exterminators, ait la Zardoz, murdering a million
prying. However
prying. However within
within aa fewfew hours,
hours, thethe prosecution
prosecution Je~s and gypsies either by shooting or in
Jews in special gas-vans,
managed to
managed to obtain
obtain aa copy
copy ofof the
the message.
message. Ernest
Ernest C. C. Deane,
Deane, poisoned
pOlsoned by exhaust fumes. Yet any objective examination
Taylor's press
Taylor's press officer,
officer, immediately
immediately telephoned
telephoned FoustFoust inin of the
of the evidence
evidence will
will show
show that
that there
there is
is even
even less
less reason
reason for
for
order "to talk
order "to talk him
him out
out of
of sending
sending the
the story".
story". But
But the
the story
story believing this allegation than there is for the entire "exter
"exter-
had already been sent, and Foust replied that "Taylor mination
mination camp"
camp" myth.
myth.
could not
could not properly
properly have
have knowledge
knowledge of of the
the article
article until
until its
its Four groups of about 700 SD SD men were set up. Ohlendorf
publication." Taylor thereupon prepared a reply to commanded Group D in in southern Russia. Rasch of Group
Wennerstrum's remarks, and the reply was actually made C operated immediately to the north of D. Groups A and
Tribune published the
public before the Tribune the' Foust story con con- B operated around the Baltic states, commanded by
taining Wennerstrum's attack. Taylor accused the judge, Stahlecker
Stahlecker and
and Nebe
Nebe respectively.
respectively.
among other things,
among other things, of
of making
making remarks
remarks "subversive
"subversive to to the
the Although
Although masses of
masses of documentary
documentary 'evidence'
'evidence' was
was
interes~s and policies of the United States." Wennerstrum,
interests produced
produced atat Niirnberg
Niimberg to to 'prove'
'prove' the
the case
case against
against the
the
on arrival
on arnval inin the
the US
US shortly
shortly after
after the
the publication
publication of of both
both Action Groups, most of these documents are highly
Tribune article
the Tribune
the article and
and Taylor's
Taylor's reply,
reply, stood
stood firm
firm onon his
his suspect~ Most
suspect. Most of
of them
them came
came from
from the
the Soviets,
Soviets, who
who claimed
claimed
remarks, and
remarks, yet again
and yet again criticised
criticised Taylor.
Taylor. to have captured them when they pushed back the
This incident was one of the notable "government Germans
Germans in
in 1943.
1943.
spying" incidents
spying" incidents of of the
the year
year 1948.
1948. TheThe Army
Army issued
issued an
an The only points where signatures appear on the
order against
order against such
such spying,
spying, and
and there
there was
was much
much speculation
speculation documents are on irrelevant pages. Not aa single page was
that Taylor himself might be court martialled. When produced which mentioned "extermination" and bore the
reporters asked
reporters asked Taylor
Taylor for
for his
his opinion
opinion on on the
the legality
legality of
ofsignature
signature of
of any
any Nazi
Nazi commander.
commander. Document
Document NO-1128,
NO-1128
his action,
his the following
action, the following exchange
exchange occurred:
occurred: said to be aa report from Himmler to Hitler about theth~
"I don't
"I don't know
know whether
whether it
it was
was legal
legal or
or not,"
not," he
he replied.
replied. execution of 363,211 Jews in
in Russia, bears only initials
"Weren't you
"Weren't you General
General Counsel
Counsel of the
the Federal Communications (said to be Himmler's) on the essentially irrelevant first
Federal Communications
Commission for
Commission for two
two years
years before
before being commissioned in the Army?" page. Documents 180-L, 2273-PS, 119-USSR, NO-3159
in the
40
40
and many others too numerous to list, all mention exter- exter
mination, but the signatures are either type-written or on
irrelevant pages. In In passing, it is worthwhile mentioning
that in referring to the IMT and AMT volumes one should
note that a reference to a "signed" document always
means a type-written signature, unless it is specifically
noted
noted asas a hand-written one.
a hand-written one.
A large number of the documents produced in this trial
A guerillas. In fact, Franz Stahlecker, commander of Group
came via the Yivo Yivo -— the Yiddish
Yiddish Scientific Institute in in
New York.
York. Document 3663-PS was one of 70 70 documents
supposedly found at the Rosenberg Ministry in September
1945 by a Sergeant Szajko Frydman of the US 82nd
Airborne Division. Frydman was a staff member of the
Yivo both before and after his military service. Like the
Soviet documents, none of the Yivo papers bears a signature
on a page which directly refers to extermination.
Many of the reports cited in evidence were obvious
forgeries. Even the Jewish holocaust historian Reitlinger
expresses unease at some of these "rather amateurish
essays".
As in the other trials, testimonial evidence was admitted
willy-nilly. One such statement was that of SS SS Capt. Dieter
Wisliceny, an assistant in Adolf Eichmann's office and later
Gestapo Chief in Slovakia. Wisliceny fell fell into the hands of
the Czech Communists and was interrogated (by both
Soviets and Americans) at the Soviet-controlled Bratislava
Prison in November 1946. Subjected to torture, Wisliceny
was reduced to a nervous
nervous wreck
wreck and became addicted to
uncontrollable fits of sobbing for hours on end prior to his
execution. Although his written confession is peppered
with obvious factual inaccuracies, it was still admitted as
'proof' of the Action Groups' misdeeds. Again, Wisliceny
'proof
displayed a remarkable linguistic ability, for his affidavit
was submitted in the English language.
The major defendant at the Action Groups trial was also
subjected to torture -— SS General Otto Ohlendorf, the
chief of the SD who commanded Action Group D in the
Ukraine, attached to Field Marshal von Manstein's Eleventh
Army. During the last phase of the war he was employed
as a foreign trade expert at the Ministry of Economics.
Service on the Eastern front was by no means popular
with the German soldiers (the degenerate Commandant
Koch of Buchenwald was initially given the choice of
either serving on the Eastern Front or being executed) and
there is
there is a certain amount
a certain amount ofof evidence
evidence to to show
show that
that
Ohlendorf was only sent there because he had crossed
Himmler.
After his torture, Ohlendorf appeared as a prosecution
witness at the IMT and agreed that exterminations had
taken place. But Ohlendorf was in for a surprise when he
found that he too was going to stand in the dock, regardless
of his co-operation in the trial of his bosses.
At the AMT Case 9, Ohlendorf attempted to refute his
previous testimony. He He retracted the affidavit he had made
on 5 November 1945 when he admitted that 90,000 Jews
had been
had been killed
killed under
under his
his command
command alone.
alone. He now claimed
He now claimed
it was only 40,000. In In a main speech before the Tribunal,
Ohlendorf took the opportunity to denounce Philip
Auerbach, the (Jewish) Attorney-General of the Bavarian
State Office for Restitution, who at that time was claiming
compensation for "11 million Jews" who had suffered in
Nazi concentration camps. Ohlendorf dismissed this
ridiculous claim, stating that "not the minutest part" of
the people for whom Auerbach was demanding compen- compen
sation had even seen a concentration camp. (Ohlendorf
lived long enough to see Auerbach convicted for embezzle-
embezzle
ment and fraud; forging documents purporting to show
41
41
huge payments of compensation to non-existent people.)
Ohlendorf explained that his units often had to prevent
massacres of Jews by anti-Semitic Ukrainians. He insisted
that the partisans, which his units were sent in to suppress,
had taken a far higher toll of lives from the regular German
army -— an assertion confirmed by the Soviet Government,
which boasted of half a million German troops killed by
A, was himself killed by partisans in 1942.
Another defendant, SS Lieutenant Col. Hinsch, Hansch, who
was in charge of a commando group in Group C for about
seven weeks, disputed that any orders had ever been given
which even mentioned Jews. He estimated that whilst he
which
was in charge, only about .sixty
sixty partisans had been killed,
and all of these had been armed. The distinguished English
jurist, A. J. P. Veale, in dealing with the Action Groups,
explains that in fighting on and behind the Russian front
no distinction could be properly drawn between partisans
and the civilian population, because any Russian civilian
who maintained his civilian status instead of acting as a
terrorist was liable to be executed by his countrymen as a
traitor. Veale says, "There is no question that the Action
Groups' orders were to combat terror with terror" and he
finds it strange that atrocities committed by the partisans
were regarded as blameless simply because they turned out
to be on the winning side. Ohlendorf took the same view,
and in a bitter appeal written before his execution, he
accused the Allies of hypocrisy in holding the Germans to
account by conventional laws of warfare while fighting a
savage Soviet enemy who did not respect those laws.
The prosecutors were anxious to utilise Ohlendorf to
the full. Consequently, even while he was under sentence
of death, he was again presented as a prosecution witness
at the High Command Trial (AMT No. 12) when his
commanders stood in the dock. However, they did not
dare produce him in the case of the regular army chief on
the Eastern Front, Field Marshal Manstein, since they
knew that Manstein's brilliant defence counsel Reginald
(now Lord) Paget would be able to demolish him. Instead
they submitted Ohlendorf's written affidavit, which could
not be challenged.
Ohlendorf and HinschHansch were both sentenced to hang.
Ohlendorf's sentence was carried out in 1951, when there
was no
was no further
further use
use for
for him.
him. Hinsch's
Hansch's sentence
sentence was
was com-
com
muted to fifteen years.
Ironically, it is thanks to a Russian that the bogusness of
the "gas-van" legend is finally being exposed. Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn, in The Gulag Archipelago, mentions the case
of a Bavarian, Jupp Aschenbrenner, whom the Soviets
persuaded to sign a declaration that he had worked on
wartime gas-vans. Aschenbrenner was later able to prove
that, at the time he had supposedly been working on the
vans, he was actually in Munich studying to become a
welder.
AMT 10:
AMT 10: Krupp
Krupp
Thanks to Jackson's bungling in the IMT, the prosecution
had failed to 'field' the right Krupp. They had been deter-
deter
mined to have at least one armaments baron on the the list
list of
defendants, but it was unfortunate, from their point of
view, that they had selected the wrong one; the senile
Gustav who was in a perpetual coma on his death bed.
Even the International Tribunal did not have the gall to try
someone who was incapacitated (although they did feel
able to try Bormann of whose state of health nobody had
the slightest idea). Jackson applied to the court to have
 the aged
the aged Gustav tried in
Gustav tried in absentia,
absentia, butbut was
was turned
turned down.
down. A A somely
somely rewarded,
rewarded, so so hehe really
really went
went to to town
town employing
employing
few days
few days later
later he
he applied
applied forfor Gustav's
Gustav's son son Alfried
Alfried to to be
be researchers
researchers and and junior
junior counsel
counsel -— three three researchers
researchers for for
tried in
tried in his
his father's
father's place.
place. "No"No greater
greater disservice
disservice to to the
the every
every oneone the
the Americans
Americans were were employing.
employing. There There was was even
even
future peace
future peace ofof the
the world
world could
could be be done
done than
than to to excuse
excuse an
an expensive
expensive American
American attorneyattorney in in his
his retinue
retinue -— former
former
the entire
the entire Krupp
Krupp family
family from
from thisthis trial,"
trial," hehe said.
said. But
But US
US Col.
Col. Joseph
Joseph S. S. Robinson.
Robinson. The The defence
defence team team waswas able
able to
to
Lawrence wanted
Lawrence wanted no no part
part of of it.
it. "This
"This isis not
not aa football
football gather
gather 1309
1309 affidavits
affidavits (to (to the
the Americans'
Americans' 380) 380) and and two
two
game where
game where another
another player
player cancan be
be substituted
substituted forfor one
one who
who defence
defence witnesses
witnesses for for every
every prosecution
prosecution witness.
witness.
isis injured,"
injured," hehe said
said sharply,
sharply, andand enquired
enquired whether
whether suchsuch aa Alfried
Alfried Krupp
Krupp was was tried
tried along
along with eleven of
with eleven of the
the firm's
firm's
motion would
motion would bebe acceptable
acceptable in in an
an American
American courtroom.
courtroom. In In managers
managers -— Houdremont,
Houdremont, Eberhardt, Eberhardt, Lehmann,
Lehmann, Janssen,
Janssen,
fact Gustav
fact Gustav waswas toto cling
cling on on toto the
the thread
thread of of life
life for
for 'Kanonen-Muller',
'Kanonen-Muller', Max Max Ihn,Ihn, Hans
Hans Kupke,
Kupke, Karl Karl Pfirsch,
Pfirsch,
another few
another few years;
years; he
he did
did not
not die
die until
until 1950.
1950. Heinrich
Heinrich Korschan,
Korschan, Ewald Ewald LoserLoser and and Fritz
Fritz vonvon Billow.
Biilow.
There is
There is no
no doubt
doubt that
that if
ifJackson
Jackson had had done
done hishis homework
homework They
They were indicted on
were indicted on 15 15 August
August 1947, 1947, andand thethe trial
trial
properly,
properly, he he would
would have
have 'fielded' Alfried at
'fielded' Alfried at the
the IMT
IMT in in the
the proper
proper opened
opened three three weeks
weeks later. Although the
later. Although the first
first and
and
first
first place,
place, rather
rather than
than the
the old
old man.
man. As As William
William Manchester
Manchester last days of
last days of the
the trial
trial were
were held
held in in the
the splendour
splendour of of the
the
(an arch-liberal)
(an arch-liberal) says
says in in The
The Arms
Arms of of Krupp
Krupp (Michael
(Michael mahogany
mahogany and and marble
marble hall hall ofof the
the Palace
Palace of of Justice
Justice where
where
Joseph, 1969),
Joseph, 1969), ifif the
the facts
facts about
about Gustav's
Gustav's illness
illness and
and the
the the
the IMT
IMT defendants
defendants had had met
met their
their fate,
fate, for
for the
the ten
ten months
months
full scope
full scope ofof Alfried's
Alfried's involvement
involvement with with the
the family
family firm
firm in between, the
in between, the trial
trial waswas held
held in in aa freezing
freezing cold, dingy dingy
had beenbeen fully known to
fully known to Jackson
Jackson before
before the trial,
trial, "it is fourth-floor
fourth-floor chamber.
chamber. The ornate ornate appointments
appointments were left left
highly improbable that (Alfried) Krupp would have left for the I.G. I.G. Farben Tribunal (AMT (AMT 6) which proceeded
Niirnberg alive." contemporaneously. The Krupp defendants were guarded
And interestingly: by two negro G.1. 's, much to the indignation of Krupp and
G.I.'s,
It is generally
It generally conceded
conceded by scholars
scholars of
of the trial, however, that Bulow.
Biilow.
several of the eleven who were hanged in the Palace
several Palace of
of Justice
Justice on
on the The charges were identical to those at the IMT. All the
morning of October 16, 16, 1946,
1946, were victims of the time. Alfred JodI,
Jodl,
defendants pleaded not guilty. Despite the glamour of the
for
for example ... . . . died for
for a fraction
fraction of the crimes of which Alfried
found guilty, and for
was later found for which he could have been convicted chief defendant, the press paid little attention to the trial.
first court. Chance favoured
before the first favoured Krupp. Throughout the whole ten months, the New York York Times
Because of the mass of documents relative to the case printed a sum total of two columns on the case.
which had to be sifted, the Krupp trial did not finally It was while the Krupp trial was under way that the
come to court until near the end of the AMT series. It winds of change started to blow through Germany, and
became trial number ten out of the twelve. But as the trial this was to prove Krupp's eventual salvation.
date approached, rumblings of discontent about the trial Early in September 1947, the new US Secretary of State
of a fellow industrial baron increased amongst the inter- inter James Byrnes boarded the German state train with his
national financial community. But General Taylor, in 'adviser' Benjamin V. Cohen (Byrnes sleeping in Hitler's
charge of the AMT series, held firm, for he had the support bed and Cohen in Goring's), and set off for Stuttgart for
of the American Zone military governor, General Clay. As a meeting with Germany's nascent leaders. Byrnes/Cohen
Taylor later recalled in an interview with William Manchester laid out the USA'sUSA's re-vamped European strategy. Now that
for his book on Krupp, "General Clay supported me Germany had had been cleansed of the evil of anti-semitism,
unfailingly. He's from Marietta, Georgia, a really small she was fit to take her proper place in Europe — - as
town, and he had the rural Southerner's distrust of 'wicked America's chief trans-Atlantic staging post. Western
bankers' . "
bankers'." Germany was to become "a bulwark against Soviet expan expan-
Taylor's aides ran into a tricky problem during 1947, as sionism", "a corner-stone of European union"; in in other
they were still preparing the prosecution brief for the words, an an American satellite. The German 'leaders' gave
Krupp case. American Chief Justice Fred Vinson issued aa the plan their full full approval; to be be fair,
fair, they had had little
decree that federal judges would no longer be be granted alternative.
alternative.
leaves of absence to serve on the AMT tribunals. Undeterred, Early in
Early in 1948,
1948, the the first
first moves
moves werewere mademade to to hand
hand over
over
Clay
Clay obliged by combing the state supreme courts, and government to the Germans, by now installed in in their new,
recruited their judges instead. He He finally obtained the but singularly pedestrian and unimpressive, 'capital' of
services of
services of Justice
Justice H.H. C.
C. Anderson
Anderson of of the
the Tennessee
Tennessee Court
Court Bonn. A
Bonn. A new
new Deutschmark was was introduced,
introduced, and aa block
of Appeals,
of Appeals, Justice
Justice Edward
Edward J. J. Daly
Daly of thethe Connecticut
Connecticut was put
was put onon further consignments
consignments of of 'reparations' (looted(looted
Superior Court,
Superior Court, and
and Justice
Justice William
William J.J. Wilkins
Wilkins of of the
the machinery) being
machinery) being shipped
shipped to to the
the Soviet
Soviet Zone.Zone.
Superior Court
Superior Court ofof Washington.
Washington. Taylor
Taylor recruited
recruited aa prose
prose- Then, as the
Then, the Krupp
Krupp proceedings reached midpoint, midpoint, on on
cution team
cution team nominally
nominally led led byby anan ambitious
ambitious young young 11 April
April 1948,
1948, as as one
one of of Kranzbiihler's
Kranzbuhler's star star turns
turns was
was venting
venting
Kentuckian by
Kentuckian the name
by the name of of Rawlings
Rawlings Ragland,
Ragland, butbut whose
whose forth, aa military
forth, military policeman
policeman passed passed aa crumpled
crumpled note note toto the
the
actual driving
actual driving force
force was the arrogant,
was the arrogant, fanatical
fanatical Benjamin
Benjamin B. ~. bench and
bench and an an immediate
immediate recess recess waswas called.
called. The
The RedRed Army
Army
Ferencz.
Ferencz. According
According to to Berthold
Berthold Krupp,
Krupp, Alfried's
Alfried's brother,
brother, had blockaded
had blockaded Berlin.Berlin. Tension
Tension mounted
mounted rapidlyrapidly in in the
the
"The fire
"The fire in the prosecution
in the prosecution staff
staff came
came from
from German
German JewsJews succeeding days.
succeeding days. A A British
British plane
plane was
was shot
shot down
down overover Berlin
Berlin
who had
who had become
become naturalised
naturalised Americans
Americans and and then
then lawyers.
lawyers. by aa Soviet
by Soviet fighter.
fighter. ClayClay dissolved
dissolved the the Allied
Allied Council,
Council, andand
In
In the
the courtoom
courtoom they they were
were acting
acting from
from hate.
hate. They
They made
made the United
the United States
States closed
closed its its zonal
zonal border
border to to all
all Soviets.
Soviets.
the
the trial
trial political."
political." Partial mobilisation
Partial mobilisation had had begun.
begun. Fresh
Fresh troops
troops were
were arriving
arriving
Because of
Because of the
the Krupp
Krupp family's
family's vast
vast wealth,
wealth, they
they were
were from America,
from America, and and aa massive
massive aerial
aerial convoy
convoy of of C47s
C47s waswas
able to
able to secure
secure for
for Alfried
Alfried the
the very
very best
best in
in defence
defence counsel.
counsel. daily ferrying
daily ferrying 13,000
13,000 tons tons of of supplies
supplies to to Berlin.
Berlin.
Chief of
Chief of the
the defence
defence team
team waswas Otto
Otto Kranzbiihler,
Kranzbiihler, who who had
had was against
It was
It against this this background
background of of acute
acute 'East-West'
'East-West'
earlier demonstrated
earlier demonstrated his his rhetorical
rhetorical abilities
abilities in
in his
his defence
defence tension that Kranzbiihler
tension that Kranzbuhler unfolded unfolded his his elaborate
elaborate defence
defence
of Donitz
of Donitz at at the
the IMT,
IMT, andand ofof Odilo
Odilo Burkhart
Burkhart in in AMT
AMT 5, 5, portfolio. As
portfolio. As Manchester
Manchester points points out:
out:
and of
and of Saarland
Saarland industrialist
industrialist Hermann
Hermann Rochling
Rochling before
before aa Another wind
Another wind was
was blowing
blowing through
through the
the post-war
post-war Reich
Reich (sic),
(sic),
French
French military
military'court.
court. Kranzbiihler
Kranzbuhler knew knew that
that ifif he
he got
got warming
warming the the defeated
defeated nation.
nation. Otto
Otto Kranzbiihler
Kranzbiihler was
was sensitive
sensitive to
to it,
it,
Krupp off
Krupp off with
with only
only aa light
light sentence
sentence hehe would
would be be hand
hand- set
set his
his sails
sails to
to catch
catch it,
it, and
and conducted
conducted aa defence
defence wholly
wholly unlike
unlike any
any
42
42
other
other at Niirnberg. The prosecution lived in the immediate past; the
world of Die Fahne Hoch. Alfried's chief counsel saw that regardless
of the outcome here, politics would be far more important to his
client's future than justice, for the new wind, now approaching gale
force, was political.
It was this aspect of Kranzbiihler's strategy thattl:tat saved
Krupp fromfrom the gallows more than any other. He realised
that America would need a strong Germany as its European
staging-post. A A strong Germany meant an industrialised,
not pastoralised, Germany. And an industrialised Germany
meant a Kruppsche Germany. In In any case, previous exper-
exper
ience in other 'trials
trials had shown that the validity or
otherwise of past evidence bore no relation to the end
result of the trial, so Kranzbiihler reckoned that it would
be a better risk to spin out the trial long enough and
appeal to the tribunal's continually growing awareness of
the potential usefulness of Krupp and his industries to the
Bundesrepublik puppet government and its Washington
string-pullers.
His brilliant stratagem had several other, lesser, aspects
worthy of note. For example, the defence declined to put
Krupp himself in the witness box, because they knew that
the prosecution would have a field day throwing all kinds
of ludicrous accusations at him, most of which he would
be unable to answer (since they were either prosecution
inventions or totally removed from Krupp's sphere of
influence). It was only because Kranzbiihler had done his
homework that he was able to come up with this tactic.
Any other German barrister would have assumed that a
defendant's silence would weigh against him, as it does in
a German court. The wiley Kranzbiihler knew that the
AMT went by American court procedure, where a
defendant had a Constitutional right to remain silent,
without prejudicing the verdict. Here, Here, he was one step
ahead of the prosecution, who were left in dismay holding
sheaves of 'damning' atrocity affidavits.
Kranzbiihler won an unexpected propaganda coup even
when he was absent from the Niirnberg proceedings. Whilst
he was in the Saarland defending Krupp's counterpart
Rochling, a row developed between several of the other
Krupp defenders and the bench, over whether all witnesses
had to appear in person, or might give depositions elsewhere
in the building. The Krupp defence team promptly walked
out; an acceptable form of courtroom protest on the
Continent. In America and Britain such an action is illegal.
The judges believed that they had been deliberately
slighted, and ordered the court marshall to round up all
the Krupp defenders he could find and lock them up. This
proved to be a god-send to Kranzbiihler when he hurried
back. He was able to demonstrate to the German people
that "Krupp was being deprived of defence counsel by the
court."
court."
In a more deliberate piece of staging, Kranzbiihler was
able to show that Krupp was being deprived of a vital
American lawyer by the name of Earl J. Carroll. Carroll, a
genial Irish-American with a law practice in California and
a flair for publicity, had himself been expelled from
Germany
Germany in in 1946
1946 for
for highlighting "grave abuses
highlighting "grave abuses in the
in the
army and the American Military Government." After
resigning from the army, he sailed back to Germany and
tried to set up his own law
law practice. General Clay personally·
personally
accused him of "abusing his German entry permit" by
getting involved with merchandising alcohol and similar
nefarious activities. But Carroll was allowed to stay, so
long as his legal practice was restricted to defending
American servicemen and civilians. So, when Kranzbiihler
asked for permission for Carroll to join his defence team,
43
43
hoping to draw on the Irishman's inside knowledge of the
Military Government, the court refused. Kranzbiihler
attempted to resign his post in protest, but the court
would not accept his resignation. Here again, Kranzbiihler
was able to martyr Krupp in the eyes of the German
people, since "the court refused Krupp the lawyers he
wanted."
On 31 July 1948, the judgement was read out. Its
wording was harsh, and its sentences surprisingly severe,
after all the effort Kranzbiihler had put into the case. Not
only was Krupp to go to jail for twelve years, but his entire
personal and industrial wealth was to be confiscated. An
appeal to a review panel that autumn was turned down.
However, what the tribunal had failed to take into
account was the implementation of the confiscations.
Nearly all the Krupp factories were in the British zone.
Those in the Soviet zone had been seized long ago anyway.
General Clay notified the British authorities of the confis-
confis
cation decree and waited for a response. There was none.
The Krupp factories awaited the return of their Krupp
owner, and they did not have long to wait.
With the Cold War threatening to become a hot one, the
new High Commissioner in the American Zone, John J.
McCloy, a New York banker, realised only too well that
the USUS would have to pander a little to the Germans in
order to gain
gain their whole-hearted co-operation in defending
the 'free'West.
'free' West. The only stumbling block was the continued
imprisonment of prominent Germans as 'war criminals'.
Therefore, on 20 March 1950, McCloy set up a Clemency
Board to re-examine the sentences of the Niirnberg
internees, under the chairmanship of David W. Peck,
Presiding Justice of the New York Supreme Court. McCloy
gave the three-man committee five months to review the
sentences involved
involved in the whole 12-case AMT series -— a
mammoth task. After initial meetings in Washington, the
Peck Panel, as it came to be known, moved to Munich,
where it heard submissions from fifty lawyers speaking on
behalf of 90 of the prisoners interned at the Landsberg.
Krupp's appeal was presented by Carroll, the Irish-
American lawyer, who was still at large in Germany. Visits
were also made to the Landsberg to interview some of the
prisoners. Although the Panel did not hear submissions
from the prosecution, most of whom had scattered to the
four corners of the earth, some of the more fanatical
prosecutors from 1948 insisted on writing to the members
of the Panel. One such was Benjamin Ferencz, the brains
behind the Krupp prosecution, who wrote offering his
services. Ferencz was one of the members of the prosecution
team who was still in circulation in Germany; he was
working to secure financial compensation for Jews who
alleged that they were due reparations of some kind
because of the war. When Ferencz received but a short
note of acknowledgement to his offer, he made it his
business to keep an eye on the deliberations of the Peck
Panel. Manchester reports:
Out of curiosity he dropped into the High
High Commissioner's office
from time to time during the Peck deliberations. On his first visit, at
the very
the beginning of
very beginning of the
the new
new enquiry,
enquiry, he
he found
found the
the records
records of the
of the
Krupp trial. They were packed in crates
crates six feet long
long and shaped
curiously like coffins. Knowing the evidence that lay inside, he kept
wondering when the lids would be removed. They never were.
Despite
Despite the
the interference
interference of
of Ferencz,
Ferencz, and
and aa broadside
broadside
from
from Mrs.
Mrs. Eleanor
Eleanor Roosevelt,
Roosevelt, the
the Peck
Peck Panel recommended
Panel recommended
clemency; 101 prisoners would be freed from Landsberg.
At the stroke of 9 a.m., on the bitterly-cold morning of
Saturday, 3 February 1951, Krupp led the first batch of
28 other freed prisoners through the heavy gates of the
fortress
fortress to
to freedom.
freedom.
 But as a sop to the Roosevelt-led revenge lobby, McCloy approval of the conviction of Lt.
Lt. Calley after the Mi Lai incident and
also turned down final appeals for clemency from five in December 1972
1972 he endorsed the 'evidence' which Ladislas Farago
Farago
had gathered in connection with the supposed
supposed discovery of Martin
AMT defendants -— Pohl, Blobel, Braune, Naumann and Bormann in Argentina.
Bormann Argentina. Evidently
Evidently in aa fit
fit of nostalgia, Kempner
Ohlendorf -— and they were hanged a few months later on declared that the "United States and its Allies should re-open the
7 June 1951. It has since been suggested that Pohl and Bormann case within the framework
framework of the International Military
Ohlendorf in particular had outlived their usefulness as TribunaL"
Tribunal." (In actual fact
fact Bormann had been tried and sentenced to
star prosecution witnesses, and had to be got rid of before death in absentia; obviously Kempner had no regard for for the legal
principle of not being tried twice for
principle for the same offence.) Kempner
they started to retract any of their testimony. now has a legal practice in Frankfurt-am-Main.
Hilldring
AMT PROSECUTORS
PROSECUTORS A man whose career was remarkably intertwined with that of
~a~cus
Marcus w~ was G~~e!al
General Jo~n
John H. Hilldring, w~o
who headed the Army's
Kempner CIVIl
Civil MfaIrs
Affairs DIvIsion
Division which Marcus was assigned to in 1943. The
One of the chief advisers in Taylor's office, and the chief CAD had been created in 1943 within the Army General Staff in
prosecutor at AMT Trial 11, was Robert M. W. Kempner. anticipation of US military rule in Germany. It It had been thought
Kempn~r,
Kempner, a Jew, was born in Germany in 1899, studied law, and that Fiorello La Guardia (later to become Mayor of New York) was
joined the Prussian Ministry of the Interior during the 1920s. Between to head the CAD, but instead the job went to Hilldring.
1928 and 1933 he was a senior counsel for the Prussian State Police Marcus became a member, and later chief, of the Planning Branch
(under the Ministry of the Interior) and specialised in investigating of the CAD. When the War Crimes Branch was transferred to
the rising Nazi Party. He He became a vehement anti-Nazi anti-Nazi, and Hilldring from
from the JAG Dept., he immediately put Marcus in charge
energetically but unsuccessfully attempted, in his official capacity, of it.
~hen
Then Hilldring moved over to the State Department as an
to have the party outlawed. When the Nazis took over the German
Government in 1933 he was dismissed from his government position. ~slstant
Assistant ~ecretary
Secretary of State in charge of occupied area problems; in
Although Jewish, he was able to continue his legal practice, thiS
this capacity he headed a secretariat which co-ordinated Army, Navy
specialising in international law, Jewish migration problems and laws and State Department policies in the American zone. And it was
affecting taxi drivers. In 1935 he moved first to Florence in Italy, while he was working at the Pentagon early in 1947 that he gave
then to Nice, France and finally
finally to the USA in 1939. official permission for for Col. Marcus to go off and fight fight for
for the
He managed to obtain a job as "research associate" at the Haganah in Palestine. .
University of Pennsylvania, where his mother was already employed. In September 1947 Hilldring left the State Department and
He immediately resumed his anti-Nazi crusade, and in 1943 published became an Adviser to the US delegation at the newly-formed United
a book based on his past experiences, with extensive use of some Nations, where the diplomatic battle between the Zionists and the
Prussian government papers he had managed to smuggle out of Arabs was hotting up.
Germany. He gained something of a reputation as an anti-Nazi When the time came in November 1947 for the United
When United Nations to
expert, and he contributed many of his smuggled records to the vote on whether or not to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, the
University library. As the war was drawing to a close, he floated the result of the vote rested on a very fine balance, where the votes of
idea that the Nazi leaders should be tried in the USA before ordinary small and insignificant countries could make all the difference.
American courts. In the meantime, he had acquired US citizenship. A
A frantic drive was launched to bully the Third World countries
During the war
war he worked for for both the US Department of Justice into voting forfor Israel.
Israel. The campaign operated through the American
and the Office of Strategic Services (later to become the CIA). In the UN Delegation, particularly Eleanor Roosevelt and General Hilldring
latter agency he was charged with drawing up lists of "German" anti- who "had been persuaded by his investigation of Nazi Nazi atrocities and
Nazis who could be trusted with posts in the coming occupation the plight of Jewish survivors that a Jewish State was necessary."
government of Germany. Kempner was one of a large large group of The Liberian vote was assured by pressure brought to bear
German Jews in the OSS at at that time. One of his colleagues was was through Harvey Firestone, president of the Firestone rubber
in~rests in Liberia.
company, which had extensive interests
Herbert Marcuse, now a Marxist university lecturer.
At the end of the war, Kempner switched to the War War Department The Haitian vote was taken care of with a promise of a #5 $5 million
and accompanied the US Army during the invasion of Germany. At loan from the
loan the United
United States.
this time hehe was "on the payroll of the Judge Advocate General." ,!,he Philippines Ambassador in
The in Washington waswas paid a visit by
Fehx. Frankf~rter, the left-wing Supreme Court judge, who impressed
Felix Frankfurter,
Prior to the opening of the IMT trial, trial, he
he served in the fairly fairly
~:m him the importance
on Importance of seven aidaid programmes currently pending
significant role of prosecution/defence liaison officer. Later he was
in charge of the division which prepared US US trial
trial briefs against in
In the Congress. That took care of the Philippines' vote.
ind~vidual defendants. During the trial, he
individual he was
was apparently an In
In conjunction with other Watergate-style tactics, such as planting
ordinary member of the prosecution staff, but with special respon respon- a bug inin the British delegation's limousine (rented from a Jewish car-
sibility in
in the prosecution of the Nazi Minister of the Interior, Frick. hire firm), putting another listening device in
hire in the Syrian delegation's
. Certainly the establishment press regarded Kempner as an room at at the Hotel Mc;Alpin
MqAlpin (which had a Jewish house-detective)
Important personality in the trials. The New York Times described
important and reporting the sexual activities of a female delegate to her govern-
govern
him as "Jackson's expert on on German matters" (6.10.46) and "chief ment, the Zionists were able to swing the necessary two-thirds vote
of investigation and
and research for
for Jackson" (7.10.46). to bring about the partition of Palestine.
Immediately after the trial he contributed a magazine article to According to the Zionists themselves, "Hilldring was a tower of
the NY Times on the great work the trial had done in in educating the strength frc:1m
frdrn the outset .... as an
. . as an information link with the Jewish
Germans. He predicted that when the Nazi Nazi leaders were finally dealt representatives he he frequently conversed with Zionist strategists."
with, their bodies would be be buried in in unmarked graves,graves, to "avoid After the diplomatic crisis had passed, Hilldring went back to the
fanatical pilgrimages by still ardent Nazis." (In (In fact their bodies State Department, this time as Assistant Secretary of State for
were taken secretly to Dachau and cremated there; there· the ashes being Palestine.
Palestine.
sifted into a nearby stream.) . ' Zi.onist sources have subsequently boasted that both Hilldring's
Zionist
When German civilian government was restored in in 1949, Kempner appointments (at the UN UN and at at the Palestine desk) were direct
warned of the inherent dangers of allowing the Germans to govern Zionist lobbying.
results of Zionist
themselves. Two years later he was in in negotiation with the self-same
Israel's representative in 'reparations'
Bonn government, as Israel's 'reparations' claims. Marcus
Marcus
The following month he was was back on his anti-Nazi crusade, attacking Marcus remained chief of the Branch until April 1947,
Marcus 1947 when he
the reprieves and sentence reductions which had bt-n b.. ··,l g:anted
g:·anted to Marcus remained chief of the Planning Branch until April 1947,
Marcus 1947
"war criminals".
several small-fry "war criminals". wh~n he
when he went into private law law practice, although according to the th~
After putting in an appearance at the US US House
House of Representatives' Dally Telegraph (24.6.48)
Daily (24.6.48) "He
"He was at the time of his death a full full
1952 investigation of the Katyn
1952 Katyn massacre, Kempner
Kempner was left left with colonel .... discipline he
. . Although not subject to military discipline he had
had agreed
little 'maintain vigilance'. Then
little to do, except 'maintain Then in 1960 Adolf remain subject
to remain subject to recall."
recall."
kidnapped by the Israelis
Eichmann was kidnapped Israelis and Kempner
Kempner was back in far-fetched, description
It is likely that this rather unusual, if not far-fetched,
It
'evidence' for
action assembling 'evidence' for the
the trial. He
He contributed an article was merely aa cover for Marcus' real activities.
for Marcus'
to
to the
the Yad Vashem Studies on methods of examining examining Nazis Nazis on
on trial, For, according
For, according toto Dan
Dan Kurzman
Kurzman inin Genesis 1948,
1948 Marcus
Marcus was
and ~ublished aa book
and he published book in ~erman which churned
in German churned out most of of the
the working at at the Pentagon-
Pentagon. in in a "planning
"planning job", ~hen he was
job", when was
old Nazi
NaZI propaganda
propaganda myths in In re-hashed
re-hashed form.
form. In In 1971
1971 he expressed
expressed Zionist recruiting agent. "Marcus
approached by a Zionist "Marcus waswas glad to
to take
44
44
 respond
respond toto the
the sentry's
sentry's challenge
challenge (in(in Hebrew).
Hebrew). InIn the
the pitch
pitch blackness,
blackness,
the
the sentry
sentry had
had not
not recognised
recognised his his commander,
commander, and and had
had felled
felled him
him
with
with aa single
single shot
shot from
from hishis 77.92-calibre
.92-calibre Czech
Czech rifle.
rifle. There
There were
were
suggestions
suggestions that
that the
the killing
killing might
might notnot have
have been
been all
all that
that 'accidental',
'accidental',
since
since the
the guard
guard was
was aa soldier
soldier ofof the
the Palmach
Palmach ("striking
("striking force")
force") the
the
autonomous
autonomous and and elite
elite spearhead
spearhead of of the
the Haganah,
Haganah, whichwhich had
had
previously
previously displayed
displayed resentment
resentment at at the
the appointment
appointment of of anan
"American" overover the
the "home-grown"
"home-grown" Jerusalem
Jerusalem army.
army.

MANSTEIN
MANSTEIN

One of Gennany's
Germany's most brilliant and most honourable
generals of the Second World War was Erich von Lewinski,
who had been adopted at an early age into the von Manstein
family, and had taken their nanle. name. Both the Lewinski and
Manstein families were Prussian militarists through and
through, with a very strict code of honour and behaviour.
Therefore, it was all the more ridiculous that such a man
should be arraigned before a 'war-crimes' tribunal, accused
of war atrocities.
Reginald Paget, an English barrister and Labour MP,
thought so too, and disobeyed the instructions of the
English bar association that English barristers should not
defend
defend warwar crimes
crimes defendants.
defendants. He He was
was soso disturbed
disturbed that that
Manstein should have to face a British military tribunal
without the benefit of experienced British counsel, that he
volunteered his services free of charge. Expenses were
covered by a special defence fund set up by Lord de L'Isle
and Lord Bridgeman; one of the first subscribers being
Winston Churchill. A separate German fund paid for the
services of additional Gennan German defence counsel, which
included Dr. Laternser, who had already defended the
General Staff at the IMT, von Leeb at AMT 12 and
Kesselring at a British Military court in Italy. Paget was
also assisted, rather inexplicably, by Sam Sam Silkin, a Jewish
barrister who later became a Labour MP like Paget, and and
since 1974 has been Attorney General. Silkin had a great
deal of experience in in war crimes trials — - he had been
President of the Court in the Far Eastern trials of 1946.
One can only but speculate as to Silkin's real function at
COL. 'MICKEY'MARCUS the Manstein trial. It may be be that he was there to keep an
He later went to
to fight for
for Israel and his
his career was mythologised in eye on the phlegmatic Paget, who was liable to put the
the film "Cast a Giant Shadow"
defence case rather too forcefully and and bluntly. It may be
It may
the assignment," reports Kurzman, "and "and his superior, General that the revenge lobby realised that the trial of a respected
Hilldring,
Hilldring, who later joined the American United United Nations
Nations mission, general four yearsyears after the end end ofof the W7ar
War would outrage
was happy to grant him leave." But just just in
in case of controversy "The "The public opinion too much, so they sent Silkin along along to to
Israelis
Israelis called
called Marcus
Marcus "Stone"
"Stone" in in order
order to to avoid
avoid embarrassing
embarrassing the the smooth things
things outout aa little.
little. Whatever
Whatever the the real
real reason
reason forfor his
his
American government." smooth
One of Marcus'
Marcus' last jobs with the US US Army was was organising the presence at the trial may have been, Paget provides no no
tons of gold
sale of tons gold teeth,
teeth, which
which hadhad allegedly been been taken
taken from
from thethe clues in
clues in his
his book, and has has nothing but praise for him. him. If If
"millions
"millions of Jews Jews who
who hadhad died
died in
in Hitler's
Hitler's gas chambers," but but had
had Silkin was being sincere in in his defence of Manstein it was was
come
come intointo the
the possession
possession of of the
the USUS Army
Army as as war
war loot.
loot. The
Tne gold
gold waswas totally out
totally out of of character
character with with his
his subsequent
subsequent attitudes.
attitudes.
sold
sold at at an
an extremely
extremely reasonable
reasonable $1 $1 million
million to to the
the Israeli
Israeli terrorist
terrorist Sam Silkin
Silkin isis aa fervent
fervent Zionist
Zionist andand speaks
speaks on on platforms
platfonns
group
group Haganah
Haganah to to buy
buy arms.
arms. Sam
In January
In January 19481948 Marcus
Marcus arrived in in Palestine
Palestine andand took
took charge
charge of of promoted by by the (Zionist) Board of Deputies of British
the
the Negev
Negev Brigade,
Brigade, aa special
special mobile
mobile force
force ofof armoured
armoured jeeps.
jeeps. In
In April Jews, the Zionist Federation and AJEX (the (the anti-British
he
he returned
returned to to the
the US
US forfor three
three weeks
weeks andand waswas actually
actually awarded
awarded aa gangster organisation).
Nationalist gangster organisation).
medal
medal at at the
the British
British Embassy
Embassy in in Washington
Washington — - despite
despite thethe fact
fact that
that Manstein was was charged
charged on on 11 January
January 19491949 andand the
the trial
trial
the
the Zionists
Zionists hadhad been
been murdering
murdering British
British soldiers
soldiers inin Palestine
Palestine during
during
Manstein
the past
the two years.
past two years. (It has been
(It has been suggested
suggested that that the
the Marcus
Marcus visit
visit was
was eventually
eventually opened
opened in in the
the Curio
Curio House,
House, Hamburg,
Hamburg, on on 2323
actually
actually aa cover
cover for
for negotiations
negotiations to to bring
bring about
about aa British
British withdrawal:
withdrawal: August 1949,
August 1949, before
before aa British
British military
military tribunal.
tribunal. TheThe
British
British forces
forces pulled
pulled out
out onon May
May 15 15 —- almost
almost immediately
immediately afterafter his
his prosecution was
prosecution was in in the
the hands
hands of of Sir
Sir Arthur
Arthur Comyns
Comyns Carr Carr
visit.)
visit.) (who had had previously
previously servedserved at at the
the Tokyo
Tokyo War War Crimes
Crimes
Marcus
(who
Marcus returned
returned to to Palestine
Palestine and
and onon May
May 28 28 hehe was
was appointed
appointed trial) and
trial) and Mr.Mr. Elwyn
Elwyn JonesJones (previously
(previously on on the
the IMTIMT
Supreme
Supreme Commander
Commander on on the
the Jerusalem
Jerusalem front,front, on on the
the personal
personal
intervention of
intervention of David
David Ben-Gurion
Ben-Gurion himself,
himself, withwith whom
whom Marcus
Marcus waswas prosecution team).
prosecution team).
"extremely
"extremely close."
close." On the
On the first
first day
day ofof the
the trial,
trial, Paget
Paget atat once
once submitted
submitted
Marcus
Marcus then then became
became "the "the first
first soldier
soldier since
since Biblical
Biblical times
times to
to hold
hold that the
that the court
court hadhad nono jurisdiction
jurisdiction to to try
try Manstein,
Manstein, and and the
the
the
the rank
rank ofof General
General inin the
the Army
Army of of Israel."
Israel." R al Warrant
W t d h' h h h ld was illegal.
ill al H
On the night of June 11, Marcus was shot dead
On the night of June 11, Marcus was shot dead by one of his own by one of his own Royal
oy arran under
un er which
w lC hee was was held
e was eg. Hee
sentries. He
sentries. He had
had been
been staggering
staggering drunkenly
drunkenly aroundaround the the monastery
monastery submitted
submitted thatthat as as Britain
Britain waswas still
still (officially)
(officially) atat war
war with
with
which
which thethe Zionists
Zionists had
had requisitioned
requisitioned as as aa billet,
billet, and
and had
had failed
failed to to Germany, then
Germany, then Manstein
Manstein was was aa prisoner
prisoner ofof war,
war, and
and ifif itit
45
45
 could be proved
proved that he had broken any of the rules of
war, then he should be tried by aa court martial, not aa
military tribunal dressed up as aa civilian court. The
/prosecution replied that Manstein was no longer aa PoW;
>prosecution
he had been transformed into a common criminal prisoner
··he
on the discretion of his captors. They went on to state that
as aa war crime was so serious it could be proved by
as
evidence that would be inadequate in the case of a lesser
crime. From this startling argument, says Paget, it would
seem to follow
follow that evidence that would justify a conviction
for murder might be insufficient to support a conviction
for
for riding a bicycle without a lamp!
for
While the tribunal retired to consider this submission,
the newspaper reporters at the trial were thrown into a
tizzy wondering what 'angle' they should take when they
wrote the story up. Several concluded that they would
have to ring their employers to get advice on what angle to
take. Paget writes that he overheard a journalist from from one
famous daily newspaper observing, "I sometimes wish I
was
was onon The Times and
The Times and onlyonly had
had toto report
report what
what hadhad
happened."
happened."
N ·b al rejected
. t dP t' submission
b··
eedless tto
Needless say, th
0 say, thee ttribunal
n un reJec e Paget's
age s su mIssIon
and the trial proper began next day. As in the other war
crimes trials, the charges were nebulous accusations rather
than allegations of infringing specific acts of legislation.
There were 17 charges: 15 brought at the instigation of the
Soviet government and two brought on behalf of the
Communist Polish regime. A A Polish government represen-
represen
tative in the court was moved to complain vehemently that
Paget was defending his client too vigorously, and that the
court should not allow it. He felt that this was a negation
of the promises made by the British authorities, who had
refused Manstein's extradition to Poland on the grounds
that he would be dealt with in the British Zone.
The basis of the charges against Manstein was that he
had committed acts in in breach of the Hague Convention on
Land Warfare of 1907. But as Paget pointed out, the
Hague
Hague Convention was only applicable if all the belligerent
countries agreed to it. Several did not. And even those
which did, did not adhere to it. By a curious coincidence,
another trial was was proceeding in in Hamburg simultaneously
with Manstein's, concerning a shipyard owner who had
dared to try to smuggle machine tools out of his own
shipyard to prevent them being expropriated as 'reparations'
by the British authorities. The defence submitted that the
Hague Convention protected individuals' property in
Hague in times
war and occupation. The British prosecution said that in
of war in
modem conditions the Hague Convention was inapplicable.
modern
In both trials, therefore, the diametrically opposite con
In con-
tentions of the two British prosecution teams were upheld!
The allegations against Manstein revolved around
atrocities committed against Russian PoWs and civilians,
mass shootings of Jews and Gypsies, and seizure and
destruction of property. The case was presented over a
period ofof" twenty days, by the reading of some 800
documents to the court, and the examination of one
solitary human witness, an an Austrian corporal named Gaffa.
Some of the documents were hearsay affidavits of con con-
demned prisoners who were still alive, such as Ohlendorf,
the Einsatzgruppe commander. Paget demanded the
appearance of such witnesses so so that they could be cross-
examined. He He questioned the methods of obtaining
'affidavits' from such men, and cited the Simpson Report,
which had ·investigated
investigated 139 cases of the torturing of
Jewish-American jailers,
German prisoners by Jewish-American jailers, for the
specific purpose of extracting such affidavits. Of course,
Paget was not suggesting that these witnesses had had their
...
Field
Field Marshal
Marshal von
von Manstein
Manstein
-
testicles kicked to destruction like the Dachau prisoners;
on the contrary Paget reckoned that it was
highly probable that their testicles were in perfect order. As
Gestapo
Gestapo men
men they
they would,
would, of
of course,
course, appreciate
appreciate the
the desirability
desirability of
of
saying
saying exactly what the American
American investigators wanted. t The
importance of the Simpson Report was that it showed the alternative
to saying just what the prosecution wanted.
Although Paget's demand for the appearance of the
affidavit authors was turned down, he was still able to
demolish their claims that Manstein had known about the
mass-shootings of Jews when he discovered an earlier
affidavit by one of the SD men which contradicted his
later one. With the production of this original affidavit, the
evidence of the SD men disappeared from the trial.
Paget's discovery of the vital affigavit
affidavit was the result of
relentless and painstaking sifting of the documentary
evidence. The previous year a British War Crimes Investi-
Investi
gation team had been sent to Washington to inspect the
tons of documentary evidence stored at Alexandria,
Virginia (just outside the capital). The British team was
allowed
allowed toto borrow
borrow hundreds
hundreds of
of thousands
thousands of
of documents
documents
relating to the war on the Eastern Front; those relating
specifically to Manstein were sent first of all to London,
and the remainder were sent direct to Hamburg. The
documents sent to London were analysed there by a team
of German Jews, and 800 items were selected for intro intro-
duction as evidence at the trial. Unlike previous trials, this
time the defence was was allowed to have copies of all
prosecution documentary evidence. The enormous balance
of paperwork sent direct to Germany was stored in rows of
filing cabinets, six feet high, all along one wall of the
concert hall inin Hamburg,
HambUrg, which had been requisitioned as
a document centre. Although Paget's small team of four or
five was allowed access to this store-house, they had no
five was
hope of having enough time to sift the entire collection.
Even if they did, the collection had been so so filtered
already —- first by an
an American war crimes team, then by a
British one — - that there was unlikely to be any evidence
left in the collection which might have been of any
assistance to aa determined defence counsel.
Therefore Paget was left to rely on legal argument and
dialectics if he was to provide his client with anan adequate
defence. First, he pointed out that the charges were not
based on any known or defined laws, enacted by any
The indictment was just a list of confused and
legislature. The
unconnected accusations.
unconnected accusations.
Secondly, there were no rules of evidence in use.
Secondly,
Hearsay affidavits were introduced willy-nilly, leaving the
Hearsay
defence with no way of verifying the truth of the content,
46
46
or indeed, the identity of the author, under cross- American soldiers in Korea were acting under anti-guerilla
examination. Neither had the defence (or any previous war orders identical to those issued by Manstein.
crimes defence) been allowed to sift the captured German Paget then turned to the vexed question of the murder
war records stored in Washington. The only documents of Jews. He pointed out:
available to them were those which had already been The Germans believed that the Jews were the ruling sect of
vetted by the prosecution. . Bolshevism. So far as the Ukraine was concerned there was a sub-
sub
Paget
Paget also pointed out that potential defence witnesses stratum of truth in this. The only ethnic group in the Ukraine that
was solidly behind the communist government was
was was the Jews. They
were reluctant to come forward, in case they too were had every reason to be. The communist government was the first
arrested, or in case their relations in the Soviet Zone government of Russia that had effectively protected them from
suffered reprisals. pogroms.
pogroms.
He went on to describe the retrospective nature of the He
He then proceeded to destroy, piece by piece, the
war crimes charges, and their one-sidedness. He disputed affidavit of Ohlendorf, the Einsatzgruppe commander who
the prosecution's suggestion that 'superior orders' was no 'confessed' to all kinds of murderous deeds whilst operating
Marshal Montgomery's speech at
defence. He quoted Field Marshal in Manstein's area. According to Ohlendorf, single com- com
Glasgow inin 1946, when he said that, "Men must learn to panies of about 100 soldiers, with about 8 lorries, were
obey orders, when all their instincts cry out for them not reporting the killing
kiUing of up to 10,000 or 12,000 Jews every
to be obeyed." He cited Admiral Somerville's
SomerviUe's reluctant couple of days. Paget worked out they could not have
sinking of the French fleet at Oran -— with a loss
loss of 1500 loaded more than 20 or 30 Jews, with their luggage, into
French lives -— which was ordered by the War Office each lorry. It would take at least two hours to make each
regardless of Somerville's
SomerviUe's protes.ts.
protests. round trip to the killing place, 10 km away. Therefore,
~aget
Paget then turned to the 'evidence' itself. The charges with the short Russiap
Russian winter day restricting operations
of German atrocities during the invasion of Poland were to eight or nine hours each day, it would have taken such a
supported by depositions from witnesses. Most of these company at least three weeks to kill
Mil 10,000 Jews.
were so contradictory or full of holes that he was able to In one instance, the defence team were able to check
dispose of them quite easily. In his book, he mentions the alleged figures. One of the SD affidavits claimed that
one
one such
such affidavit which told
affidavit which told they had killed 10,000 in in Simferopol during November,
a story of a Jewish member of a working party who had accidentally and that by the following month, the town was clear of
happened to drop a bottle on the pavement, and for this 'crime*
'crime' the Jews. By a series of cross-checks, Paget showed that the SDSD
Germans shot 12 men out of the group who were working with him.
company were only in Simferopol for one day during
Those allegations which did stand up to rigorous analysis November -— the 16th. And as the place of execution was
were so general that they in no way implicated Manstein. supposed to be 15 km outside the town, no more than
Such
Such misdeeds which did
misdeeds which did occur were the
occur were the work
work of
of Himmler's
Himmler's 300 people could have been killed. This allegation received
SS, over which Manstein had no control. Paget concludes a good deal of publicity, since it was supported by the
that
that prosecution's only live witness, an Austrian corporal by
The Polish
The Polish charges
charges were
were so
so flagrantly
flagrantly bogus
bogus that
that one
one was
was left
left the
the name
name of
of Gaffa, who claimed
Gaffa, who claimed that
that he
he knew
knew the
the killings
killings
wondering why they had been presented
presented at
at all
all....
. . The
The Polish
Polish charges
charges were
wondering
had i!.ad
why they had been
had to be included for political reasons. were going
going on
on because
because hehe had
had heard
heard rumours
rumours of
of the
the killings
killings
The Russian being bandied about inin the
the mess hall. As
As aa result
result of
of this
The Russian charges
charges were
were based
based onon allegations
allegations that
that being bandied about mess hall. this
partisans, publicity, Paget
Paget received
received aa large number of of letters
letters from
from
partisans, communists
communists andand Jews
Jews had
had been.
been exterminated
exterminated in in publicity, large number
mass-shootings by by Manstein's people who had been
been in Simferopol at at the
the time of the
mass-shootings Manstein's soldiers. First of
soldiers. First of all,
all, Paget
Paget people who had in Simferopol time of the
alleged killings. As a result, the defence was able to call
endeavoured to
endeavoured to put
put anti-guerilla
anti-guerilla actions
actions into
into their
their proper
proper alleged killings. As a result, the defence was able to call
context.
context. He He quoted
quoted a a Soviet-oook Behind the
Soviet-book Behind Front Line,
the Front Line, several new
several witnesses who
new witnesses who had
had been
been billeted with very
billeted with very
much alive Jewish families, and who spoke of the normal
by
by General Pomarenko, which praised the operation of the
General Pomarenko, which praised the operation of the functioning
functioning of of a
a synagogue,
synagogue, andand of
of a
a Jewish market where
Jewish market where
guerillas' "extermination
guerillas' battalions". According
"extermination battalions". According to the
to the they
they bought
bought icons
icons and
and similar
similar bric-a-brac,
bric-a-brac, during
during the
the entire
entire
Soviet book,
Soviet book, these
these roving bands killed
roving bands killed 18,910
18,910 soldiers,
soldiers, period
period of the German
of the German occupation.
occupation.
blew up
blew up 64 troop trains,
64 troop trains, destroyed
destroyed 1,621
1,621 lorries,
lorries, exter-
exter :As
As Paget
Paget incisively
incisively commented:
commented:
minated more than 300 'traitors' and captured tons of
equipment. Ohlendorf
Ohlendorf had reported that
that not
not only
only Simferopol
Simferopol but
but the
the whole
whole
equipment. IIi -response, the
Iri "response, the Germans
Germans had imposed tough
had imposed tough had reported
Crimea was cleared of Jews. He was clearly a man who was prepared
martial law on·on the civilian population, and some civilians to say anything that would please his employers. The Americans had
were executed for carrying arms, using forged passes, found him the perfect witness ...
. . . I do not myself believe that the
ignoring the curfew and refusing to work. Paget pointed Jews murdered in the Crimea number more than 2000 to 3000.
out that the Allies adopted exactly the same stringent The court gave its decision on 19 December 1951. The
regulations -— Ordinance No.1 No. 1 of the Military Government Polish charges were thrown out altogether. Only two
-— when Eisenhower's forces reachedreached the Rhineland. charges of the original 17 were sustained intact: that
Next, Paget examined the charge that Manstein had Manstein had used Russian PoWs in clearing minefields,
ordered the execution of civilian hostages. It was admitted and that Russian civilians had been deported to work in
that fifty hostages had been shot in the town of Simferopol, Germany. Of course, this judgement completely overlooked
after a bomb had gone off and Germans killed. Paget the fact that all the Allies used PoWs in mine-clearing
produced a proclamation in in precisely similar terms to operations. Eight of the charges, including the most serious
Manstein's warning at Simferopol; issued by the Allies in one of being involved in the killing of Jews, were thrown
Berlin. Amazingly, the court refused to receive this in out.
out.
evidence! When Paget Paget further applied to call a British But the remaining seven charges were curiously altered
general to confirm that British soldiers would do do likewise, by the court during its deliberations, i.e. after the defence
this too was refused! All he was was allowed to do was submit had completed its submission on the original charges.
an excerpt from the British Manual of Military Law, where Several had the vital words "deliberately and recklessly"
Article 453 stated that "Reprisals are ... . . . indispensable as deleted from them. The charges concerning taking reprisals
resource." Shortly after the trial ended, indeed,
a last resource.". against hostages were largely upheld -— the Judge Advocate
47
47
:O!t~~~in:t~t::Sd~~:~~~~~~!!~~:~~~:~~
hostages was at all times illegal; a direct contradiction ~~.
of ~~
in his summing-up advised the court that the execution of

the British Military Manual. This was yet another example

of one law for the British and another law
law for the Germans.
Germans.
Manstein was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment; a
virtual life sentence for a man of his age. An appeal reduced
the sentence to 12 years. However he was released in one
of the general amnesties of 1952.
Paget's description of the trial was published as Mansteih
Manstein
His Campaigns and His Trial (Collins, 1951). This book
was one of the earliest attempts to criticise the war crimes
trials, and remains one of the best ever published. For
more details of the book, the reader is referred to the
chapter on 'Criticisms of the Trials'.

DACHAU TRIALS
DACHAU TRIALS

Whilst the IMT and AMT trials were taking place,

identical proceedings were being heard at nearby Dachau;
the concentration camp was used to house the defendants.
The Dachau trials were under the direct supervision of the
War Crimes Branch, and represented an all-time low in
third-degree tactics on the part of the Americans.
trial were the staffs of three concentration camps -—
On trial
Dachau itself, Buchenwald and Flossenbiirg. Also arraigned
were some German soldiers accused of killing 83 American
prisoners at Ma1m~dy
Malm^dy during the Battle of the Bulge. Later,
in 1946, the staff of Mauthausen were tried at Dachau too.
Confessions were extracted from prisoners by the use of
torture and brutality. Interrogators posed as priests in
order to extract confessions. Eventually news of the
brutality, and convictions on dubious evidence began to
brutality
filter through to the American public. A A special Simpson
Army Commission was set up to investigate the standards
of 'justice' meted out. The American Judge Edward L. van
Roden, one of the three members of the Commission,
revealed what had been going on at the Dachau trials in
the Washington Daily News of 9.1.49. (This account was
later reprinted in the British Sunday Pictorial on 23.1.49.)
He
He described the methods
described the methods used to extract
used to extract confessions
confessions
as
as follows:
follows:
"Posturing as priests to hear confessions and give absolution;
torture with burning matches driven under the prisoners' finger-
finger
nails; knocking out of teeth and breaking jaws; solitary confinement Interior of so-called Dachau Gas Chamber: it was in fact a de-lousing
and near-starvation rations.
rations. The
The statements which were admitted as and disinfection chamber. The hooks are obviously to hang clothes
evidence were obtained from men who had first been kept in in solitary from. There is no way that thousands of people could have perished
confinement for three, four and five months ... . . . The investigators in so small
in so a room.
small a room. Photo: Arthur Butz
would put a black hood over the accused's head and then punch him
in the face with brass knuckles, kick him and beat him with rubber
hoses
hoses ...... All
All but
but two
two ofof the
the Germans,
Germans, in in the
the 139 The "condemned" prisoner was later promised that, if he
139 cases we
cases we
co-operated with the prosecutors in giving evidence, he
investigated, had been kicked in the testicles beyond repair. This was
standard operating procedure with our American investigators."would be reprieved. Sometimes interrogators threatened
During interrogation, low rank prisoners were assured to turn prisoners over to the Russians. In many cases the
that convictions were being sought only against higher prisoner's family was threatened with loss of ration cards
ranking officers, and that they had absohitely
absolutely nothing to or other hardships if co-operation was not obtained.
lose by co-operating and making the desired statements. The" American" investigators responsible for this
The "American"
Such "evidence" was then used against them when they brutality, and who later functioned as the prosecution in
joined their superiors in the dock. The latter, on the other the trials, were predominantly Jewish -— Lt.Col. Burton F.
hand, had been told that by "confessing", they would take Ellis, Capt. Raphael Shumacker, Lt. Robert E. Byrne, Lt.
all responsibility onto their own shoulders, thus shielding William R. Perl, Mr. Morris Ellowitz, Mr.Mr. Harry Thon and
their men
their men from trial.
from trial. Mr. Kirschbaum. The prosecution lacked any legal training
A
A favourite stratagem, when a prisoner refused to co-co at all, as did the "court" (which consisted of ten US Army
operate, was to arrange a mock trial. The prisoner was led officers) and the "defence counsel". In fact, many of the
into a room in which civilian investigators, dressed in US defence counsel were Americans who could speak not a
Army uniforms, were seated around a black table with a word of German. Competent interpreters were not
crucifix in the centre, with two candles providing the only provided by the court. There was only one person present
light. This "court" then proceeded to hold a sham trial, at with any legal training, the head of the Administration of
the conclusion of which a sham death sentence was passed. the Dachau Trials, Col. A. H. Rosenfeld, whose rulings on
48
48
 the admissability of evidence were final. the trials could only haggle about the numbers of German
When he resigned from this post in 1948, he was asked prisoners subjected to brutalities.
by newspapermen if there was any truth in the stories There was so much public concern about the trials, after
about mock trials, at which sham death sentences had been these two reports, that a special US Senate sub-committee"
sub-committee
passed. He replied, "Yes, of course. We couldn't have made was set up, under Senator Baldwin, to investigate the
those birds talk otherwise ... It was a trick, and it worked claims of torture. One witness, formerly a court reporter
like a charm.
charm."" at the Dachau trials, testified before the committee that he
The conduct of the trials was a mockery. The indictment was so repelled by what had gone on there that he quit his
itself made only general reference to very broad categories job. He said that the most brutal had been Lt. Perl, Frank
of crimes allegedly committed between the years 1942 and Steiner and Harry W.W. Thon. He explained that both Perl
1945, and then proceeded to present a long list of and his wife had been in Nazi concentration camps, and
defendants accused of being criminal in the extremely that the Nazis had killed Steiner's mother. Judge Simpson
general sense stated. Specific crimes by specific people on conceded that this was probably a "poor team", but
specific dates were not part of the indictments (e.g. (e.g. proffered the rather lame excuse that because of the
document 3590-PS).
While the prosecution could hunt allover
all over Europe for
witnesses and, if necessary, torture prisoners in order to
get "evidence", the accused, cut off from the outside
world and without funds, were rarely able to summon
anybody to their defence. In In addition, the
the""Association
Association of
Persons Persecuted by the Nazis", by a propaganda
campaign, forbade and bullied former internees from
testifying on the side of the defence.
" The American lawyer George A. McDonough later wrote
to the NY
NY Times
Times to state:
"Hearsay evidence was admitted indiscriminately and sworn state-
state
ments of witnesses were admissible regardless of whether anybody
knew the person who made the statement or or the individual who
took the statement. If a prosecutor considered a statement of a
witness to be more damaging than the witness*
witness' oral testimony in
court, he would advise the witness to go back to his home, submit
the statement as evidence, and any objection by defence counsel
would be promptly over-ruled."
McDonough was no "right-wing crank": he himself had
served in other trials as both a prosecutor and defence
counsel, and later on was a member of a review review, board
arbitrating on clemency petitions.
One notable incident occurred when investigator Joseph
Kirschbaum brought a certain Einstein into court to testify
that the accused Menzel had murdered Einstein's brother.
that brother.
When the accused was able to point out that the brother
was alive and well and, in fact, sitting in court, Kirschbaum
was deeply embarrassed and scolded Einstein: "How can
we bring this pig to the gallows if you are so stupid as to
bring your brother into court?"
The 'American'
The 'American' Chief
Chief Prosecutor at the trialtrial of the
Mauthausen staff went under the name of "Jack Taylor".
He had himself been interned by the Nazis in Austria, for
being an OSS agent.
The Malmedy
Malm&ly defendants had a competent defence
counsel in Lt.Col. Willis M.
M. Everett, Jr., and it was thanks
his efforts that the behind-the-scenes brutalities came to
to his to
light. After his repeated appeals to the USUS Supreme Court,
plus a chorus of protests from Geonan German clergymen, the
American military governor General Lucius D. Clay finally
instigated an investigation into the Dachau trials. On 29
July 1948, the Secretary of the Army appointed a com- com
mission consisting of two American judges, Gordon
Simpson of Texas and Edward van Roden of Pennsylvania,
both JAG Department reserve colonels. They were assisted
by JAG Department Lt.Col. Charles Lawrence, Jr. The
Commission submitted its report to the Secretary of the The door of a disinfection chamber at Dachau. The The inscriptions on
Army in October 1948, and selected portions were made the door specify that the chamber is used from 7.30 to 10 in the
public in January 1949 -— as referred to earlier. morning. The warning reads "Caution! Gas!Gas! Life Danger! Do not
Further public remarks by van Roden and Simpson open!" open!*' The U.S.
U.S. Army caption for this photograph declares that
stimulated a further investigation by an independent by "Gas chambers, conveniently located to
to the crematory, are examined
a soldier of the
the U.S. Seventh Army. These chambers were used by
review board appointed by Clay. The total weight of Nazi guards for killing prisoners of the infamous Dachau concentration
evidence was so damning that in the end the proponents of camp. " Photo: U.S. Army
Photo:
49
49
shortage of German-speaking American lawyers and inter- inter
preters, the Army had been forced
preters, forced to "draw on some of
the German refugees". Steiner, Kirschbaum and Thon
(later chief of the Evaluation Section of the Civil Adminis-
Adminis
tration Division of the US military government) appeared
later and denied all. But they appeared rather shaken-up
fellow investigator Bruno Jacob admitted a few
when their fellow few
things. Rosenfeld too denied almost all.
Out of 1672 persons tried at Dachau, 1416 were
convicted. 420 of these were given death sentences.
In an ironic twist of fate,
fate, Dachau was the scene of the
'final solution' for
for the Nazi leaders. After their botched-up
hanging at Niirnberg, the bodies of the Nazi leaders were
photographed (in order to be gloated over, shortly later, in
the press and newsreels). Their bodies, disguised in US
Army uniforms, were taken to Dachau, where they were
cremated in the single Dachau gas-oven, and their ashes
sifted into the nearby River Isar. The authorities were
determined that there would be no remains, not even a
grave, which could provide a shrine for for the ere-emergence'
're-emergence'
of Nazism in years to come.
Neither had Dachau seen the last of its use as a concen-
concen
tration camp. Since its liberation, Dachau had also been
used by the Allies as a concentrat~on
concentration camp for 300 Russian
prisoners-of-war. These were men who had, either willingly
or unwillingly, served with the German forces. Early in
January 1946, the American authorities allowed Soviet
officers to visit the men to tell them that they should
come home, "All is forgiven." The Russians remained
unconvinced of the Soviets' sincerity, and refused to
budge. They barricaded themselves into their huts, singing
hymns and chanting prayers. When the American troops
finally burst in, the scene that met them was appalling.
The Russians were hysterically trying to commit suicide.
Two prisoners tried to disembowel themselves with bits of
broken glass. Others stood side by side, slashing with
pieces of glass at each other's throats. Another struck his
head straight through a pane of glass, then shook it from
side to side, pressing his neck down against the jagged
edges. The room was simply awash with blood. The
circulated deliberately by the British
British in World War I!1! All
All of these
bizarre pieces
pieces of "evidence" originated from
from the War Crimes Branch
Branch
itself (3421-PS). Even
Even Jewish
Jewish authors acknowledge that the lamp-lamp
shade evidence "later appeared to be dubious." (Manvell & Frankl,
shade evidence-
The Incomparable Crime, p.84)
Indeed, after the storm of public controversy over the conduct of
the Dachau trials, General Clay was obliged to review Frau Koch's
case. He determined that there was, after all, no way in which Frau
Koch could be related to the lampshades and other items which were
supposedly "discovered" at Buchenwald. For one thing, she had not
lived there since her and her husband's arrest and replacement in
1943. Also her "family journal", said to be bound in human skin,
and which was one of the major accusations against her, was never
located (and obviously never existed). Clay thus commuted her life
sentence to four
four years' imprisonment.
However, Clay had reckoned without the influence of organised
Jewry, and he quickly found found himself at the centre of a fiercefierce
controversy over the commutation, orchestrated mainly by Rabbi
Wise. Yet another Senate investigation into the matter neatly side- side
stepped the issue. Clay stood firm on his decision and explained that:
"Examination of the record, based upon reports which I received from
from the
lawyers, indicated that the most serious charges were based on hearsay and not
on factual
factual evidence. For that reason the sentence was commuted."
Despite this emphatic stand by the American military governor,
the .powers-that-be found
found a way out by passing Frau Koch over to
the German authorities to be tried all over again -— regardless of any
technicalities regarding 'double jeopardy'. She was again faced with
the (by now familiar) lampshade charges. Although the defence was
able to show that the testimonies of two of the prosecution witnesses
contradicted their own previous statements, IlseUse Koch was found
found
guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. She hanged herself in her
cell in 1967.
By way of a bizarre footnote to the Buchenwald story, an article
in the Catholic Herald of 29 October 1948 describes the showing of
a film in Germany which was supposed to depict all the horrors of
Buchenwald camp. When the film was shown in Kassel, where every
adult was compelled to watch, a doctor from Gottingen was
extremely surprised to see himself on the screen, apparently looking
after the victims. After a period of bewilderment he realised that
what he was seeing was part of a film taken after the terrible Allied
air raid on Dresden on the night of 13 February 1945. After the
raid, which killed a record 135,000 civilians, the bodies of the
victims were piled up and burned in in heaps of 400 or
or 500 during a
period of several weeks. These were the scenes, purporting to be
from Buchenwald, which the doctor had recognised at the Kassel
film-show.
film-show.
Dachau
Dachau

wounded men fought like demons to stop the Americans Ironically, we must turn to one of the officials at the Dachau War
patching up their bleeding necks. The guards resorted to Trials for
for evidence regarding the existence of "gas-chambers" at
Dachau camp.
beating the Russians unconscious with truncheons in order Stephen F. Pinter served as a lawyer for US War Department
for the US
to quieten them. One of the injured men died later of his with the occupation forces in Germany and Austria for for six years
wounds in in an
an American hospital near Munich. The New after the war. In the widely-read Catholic magazine Our Sunday
York Times acknowledged his death with a small paragraph Visitor (14.6.59) he wrote:
I was in "oachau
Dachau for 17 months after the war, as as a US War Department
headlined "Russian Traitor Dies of Wounds." The Attorney, and can state that there was no gas chamber at Dachau. What was
American and British newspapers had received instructions shown to visitors and sightseers and erroneously described as as a gas chamber
was aa crematory.
was crematory. NorNor was
was there
there aa gas-chamber
gas-chamber in any of
in any of the
the other
other concen
concen-
not to publicise the affair, since this might cause offence tration camps in Germany. We were told that there was a gas gas chamber at
to our wonderful Soviet allies. In fact, the whole operation Auschwitz, but since that was in the Russian zone of occupation, we were not
permitted toto investigate
investigate since
since the
the Russians
Russians would
would not
not allow
allow it.
it. From
From what
what II
was laid on simply to pander to the Soviets. It was feared
was was able to determine during the six postwar years in Germany and Austria,
that to fail to send back these men, would mean that the there were a number of Jews Jews killed, but the figure of a million was certainly
never reached.
never reached. II interviewed
interviewed thousands
thousands ofof Jews,
Jews, former inmates
inmates ofof concen
concen-
Soviets would fail in their promise to hold free elections in tration camps
tration camps inin Germany
Germany and and Austria,
Austria, and
and consider
consider myself
myself asas well
well qualified
qualified
as any
as any man
man on
on this
this subject.
subject.
Eastern Europe. As it turned out, of course, no such
is, of course, very astute on the question of the crematorium
Pinter is,
~ver took place anyway. The
elections ever The full story of this being represented as a gas chamber. Often the deliberately misleading
disgraceful episode is fully documented in Lord Bethell's term "gas oven" isis used, to further confuse the two. Of course, a
The Last
book The Last Secret.
Secret. crematorium would be a requisite facility at any community of such
a size, particularly for the cremation of the victims of infectious
diseases like typhus.
Buchenwald
This fact
This fact was conclusively proved by the German archbishop
One of the defendants
One defendants at Dachau
Dachau was Frau
Frau Use
Ilse Koch, the widow Cardinal Faulhaber
Cardinal Faulhaber of
of Munich.
Munich. He
He informed
informed the
the Americans
Americans that
that
of the Buchenwald. commandant who was executed by the SS SS for
for during the Allied air
during air raids on Munich
Munich in September
September 1944,
1944, 30,000
30,000
corruption in 1943. It was alleged at the trial and at the IMT,
1943. It IMT, in the The archbishop requested the authorities at the
people were killed. The
disjointed affidavit of one Pfaffenberger,
disjointed Pfaffenberger, who had since disappeared,
disappeared, time to
time to cremate
cremate the
the bodies
bodies of
of the
the victims
victims in
in the
the crematorium
crematorium at
at
that she had made lamp-shades
that lamp-shades out of tattooed
tattooed human skin,
skin,_ taken in order to curb the spread of disease.
Dachau, in disease. But he was told that,
the bodies of murdered Jews.
from the Jews_ AA whole array of macabre items
items unfortunately, this plan could not be carried out; the crematorium
was solemnly produced, including
solemnly produced, including shrunken
shrunken heads and jars
jars of soap. furnace, would not be
having only one furnace, be able
able to cope. Clearly,
Clearly,
One is
One is immediately struck by
by the similarity of
of the "human
"human soap"
soap" therefore, itit could not have coped with the
the 238,000
238,000 Jewish
Jewish bodies
allegation to
allegation to the
the famous
famous "Corpse
"Corpse Factory"
Factory" myth which was which were allegedly cremated In order
cremated there. - In order to do
do so,
so, the
the
50
50
crematorium would have to be kept going for 326 years without
stopping and 530 tons of ashes would have to be be disposed of.
of.
The figure of 238,000 Jewish victims at Dachau was immortalised
in a plaque unveiled in 1946 at the camp by Philip Auerbach, the
State Secretary of Bavaria, who was later convicted for embezzling
money which he claimed as compensation for non·existent
non-existent Jews.
Since that time, there has been a steady revision downwards, with
the present official
official figure
figure standing at only 20,600.
Even
Even the extreme left-wing Institut furfiir Zeitgeschichte in Munich
("the paragon of hostility and resistance to Nazism") declared in
1960 that:
1960
gas chamber at Dachau was never completed and put into operation."
"The gas
The German Communist leader Ernst Ruff testified in his
Niimberg
Niirnberg affidavit of 18
18 April 1947 that the treatment of prisoners
on the work details at Dachau was humane. The Polish underground
leader Jan Piechowiak, who was interned at Dachau from 22 May
1940 until 29 April 1945, also testified on 21 March 1946 that
prisoners there received good treatment, and that the SS personnel
at the camp were well disciplined. Berta Schirotschin, who worked
in the food service at Dachau throughout the war, testified that the
working inmates continued to receive their customary second break
break-
fast at 10 a.m. every morning until well into 1945 -— despite
increasing privation in Germany.
Of course, none of this is to deny that deaths did occur at
Dachau. Since the beginning of 1945, there had been an estimated
15,000 prisoner deaths from typhus, mostly in the camp's last two
months. When the Americans captured the camp on 29 April 1945,
they also found 500 dead bodies huddled in open trucks on a train
standing in the railway yard next to the camp. However, these
people had not been 'exterminated' either: they had died of
exposure. Finding dead people on trains in in Germany in
in the closing
stages of the war was by no means unusual. In January 1945 800
Germans, frozen to death, had been found on a train which had
in Berlin. It must be borne in
arrived in in mind that the German railway
system was in utter chaos in 1945. Most of the passenger carriages
had either been destroyed or were scattered to every corner of the
Allied bombing. It was
Reich. Many of the lines had been cut by Alljed
literally impossible to get food through to the camps; consequently
there was severe malnutrition. Many of the camp administrators had
abandoned their posts; with the resultant breakdown in order and
sanitation. The truth about thethe Dachau
Dachau deaths is to be found
found in aa
1948 publication of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science:
"There were
"There were great accumulations of cases (of typhus) in the concentration
camps and prison camps . •. . The number of patients with
with typhus fever at the
time the (Dachau) camp was first occupied will never be known. Days passed
before a census of patients could be accomplished."
But this did not prevent American propagandists from claiming
that an "extermination gas gas chamber" existed at Dachau, and that
the deaths were the result of a systematic murder programme.
Two types of room were claimed as as "gas chambers" by the
propagandists. One was indeed a gas chamber, but it was a chamber
for delousing prisoners' clothes through the use of Zyklon B
pesticide gas, i.e. an extermination chamber for exterminating lice.
The second type was an ordinary shower room, which, it was
claimed, was actually a gas chamber disguised as a shower. The
'proof'
'proof for this is supposed to be that the shower-room was next to
the crematorium. Doubtless the architects of every city crematorium
in the world will be interested to know that every time they site a
shower for the staff close to the incinerators they are risking being
accused of planning an extermination programme.
Usually the propagandists present the shower-room as the "exter- "exter
mination chamber", rather than the disinfection chamber, which was
only ten feet square, and therefore would patently not have the
capacity required to 'verify' the myth.
Today, there is no longer any pretence that a gas gas chamber was
used at Dachau. Visitors are shown the shower-room, and told that
"This gas chamber, camouflaged as a shower-room, was not used.
The prisoners selected for gassing were transported from Dachau to
the Hartheim Castle, near Linz (Austria) or to other camps." Why on
earth the Germans should have gone to all all this trouble, when they
had a real, working "gas-chamber" right rjght there on site is not
explained.
EICHMANN
Nothing conjours up ghastlier images in the minds of
tod~y than the name of Adolf Eichmann. Before
people today
his abduction by Israeli agents in 1960, not many had
Sl
51
heard of the man. After his trial and execution, the world
was flooded with sensationalistic novels, all purporting to
be based on Eichmann's activities. One example is Comer
Clarke's Eichmann: The Savage Truth. According to Clarke,
"The orgies went on until six in the morning, a few hours
before consigning the next batch of victims to death."
In fact, Eichmann was merely an unimportant adminis-
adminis
trator, the head of Office A4b in Department IV (the
Gestapo) of the Reich Security Head Office. His office was
responsible for the internment of enemy aliens, in the case
of Office
Office A4b -— the
the Jews.
Eichmann's capture, trial and execution were all hall- hall
marked with the same 'high' standards of justice which the
earlier trials had displayed.
On 23 May 1960, David Ben Gurion announced to the
Knesset that the Israeli Security Forces had captured "one
of the greatest Nazi criminals, Adolf Eichmann, who
together with the Nazi leaders was responsible for ... the
destruction of 6 million European Jews." Ben Gurion was
obviously unworried by any annoying rules of sub judice.
Nor was Professor Theodor Heuss, the former German
President, who happened to be visiting Israel at the time.
Heuss commented, "Eichmann is one of the chief war
criminals. He did enormous evil and caused untold suffering
allover
all over Europe." He He added that he was sure Israel would
handle the Eichmann case correctly and justly (i.e. (i.e. by
making sure he was found guilty).
The Israeli government was determined to make as
much political capital as possible out of the trial. As Ben
Gurion himself wrote in Davar on 27 May 1960:
The importance of Eichmann's capture and trial in Israel lies
lies ...
...
in the fact that the entire episode of the Holocaust can now be be laid
bare in an Israeli court so that the youth of this country .... . . will
know and remember. I have no doubt that in the service of the
dictators of the neighbouring countries there are scores and hundreds
of Nazis; German and Arab, who took part in the slaughter of the
Jews then and are now plotting the same thing for the nation of
Israel in its own country. Public opinion in the world must be
reminded whose disciples are those now planning Israel's destruction."
By chance, the President of the World Zionist Organis
Organis-
ation, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, happened to be visiting Israel
at the time of Eichmann's capture. He publicly expressed
reservations about the idea of Eichmann being tried before
that a better
an all-Israeli court. Goldmann felt that better show could
be made by resurrecting an international tribunal, Niirnberg-
style. Ben-Gurion quickly put Goldmann in in his place, and
pointed out:
It is not the penalty to be inflicted on the criminal that is the
main thing -— no penalty can match the magnitude of the offence -—
but the full exposure of the Nazi regime's infamous crimes against
our people. Eichmann's acts alone are not the main point in this
trial.
trial.
The Soviet government agreed~
agreed. At
At a news conference at
the United Nations th£the Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei
Gromyko expressed his approval of the trial. Also, the
Soviet Ambassador in Washington declared that although
the USSR
USSR had serious differences with Israel over the
matter of Israel's imperialism, his government felt that
Israel was entitled and indeed, obliged, to try Eichmann.
Should Israel relinquish this right, he went on, the Soviet
Union would demand Eichmann's extradition to the USSR
Union would USSR
for the crimes he had committed against Soviet citizens,
including numerous Jews.
But one country which was not so keen on the
proceedings was Argentina, from where Eichmann had
been abducted. Argentinian nationalists were annoyed that
their sovereignty had been violated by Israel. The Israeli
Israeli
Ambassador to Argentina was summoned by the
Argentinian Foreign Minister and asked for an official
explanation about the Israeli commando raid. Indeed, Eichmann's 'confession' could not have been
The Israeli Foreign Ministry replied: better written if
better written if the
the Israelis
Israelis had
had written
written itit themselves
themselves -— as as
The Government of Israel Israel had no knowledge whatsoever that seems most likely.
Eichmann came to Israel from Argentina, as the Israel Security Eichmann was charged with crimes against the Jewish
Services did
Services did not
not inform
inform it of this.
it of this . .. .. people under Section A(1), A(l), and crimes against humanity
Ever since
since the
the end
end ofof the
the Second
Second World World War, Jewish volunteers
volunteers
Ever
(among them some Israelis) had begun to look for
War, Jewish
for Eichmann, the under Section A(2) of the Nazi
under Section A(2) of the Collaborators (Punishment)
Nazi Collaborators (Punishment)
person principally responsible for the extermination of the Jews of Law, 1950 -— the only law in Israel to carry the death
Europe...
Europe . . . penalty. On 5 June 1960 Deputy Commander Ephraim
The searches were renewed more vigorously and the address of Hofstater-Elrom
Hofstater-Elrom (who (who in in an
an ironic
ironic sequel
sequel eleven
eleven years
years later
later
Eichmann, where he was
was living under aa false
false name, was discovered.
discovered. was
Eichmann, where he living under name, was
The group of volunteer searchers made contact with Eichmann and was himself kidnapped and murdered in Istanbul) requested
himself kidnapped and murdered in Istanbul) requested
asked
asked him
him ifif he
he was
was prepared
prepared to to come come for
for trial to Israel.
trial to When
Israel. When that an order be issued forbidding publication of
Eichmann realised that he had been recognised, he admitted his true Eichmann's place of incarceration, the security precautions,
identity and stated that he was living in Argentina with false papers or anything else which might might indicate
indicate his
his whereabouts. In
and under an assumed name; as to the question whether he was
prepared to stand
prepared to trial in
stand trial in Israel,
Israel, he
he requested
requested aa delay
delay of
of twenty-four
twenty-four
thee JJewish
th . h Ch
eWlS Chronicle
.I f 2
romc e of
S t b 1960
0 2 September
ep em er 1960,, an accountt IS
an accoun .
is
hours before
hours before giving
giving his
his agreement
agreement to to come
come toto Israel
Israel of
of his
his own
own free
free given of all the third-degree methods which were used to
will to be tried. He
He also handed the group a letter to the Argentine render Eichmann 'more co-operative'.
government written in his own handwriting (a (a photostatic copy of A
A special police squad, Bureau 06, was set up to co- co
which has been forwarded to the government of Argentina). The ordinate
ordinate investigation
investigation intointo Eichmann's
Eichmann's career. The Bureau
career. The Bureau
following is
is the text ofof Eichmann's
Eichmann's letter letter (as
(as translated
translated from
from its
its consisted
following the text
German original): consisted of of thirty
thirty men
men in in five
five squads.
squads. One
One squad
squad conducted
conducted
"I. the
"I, the undersillled.
undersigned, Adolf
Adolf Eichmann.
Eichmann, state state herewith
herewith of of my
my own
own free
free will:
will: Eichmann's official interrogation for 'four or five hours a
Since
Since my true identity
my true identity has now been
has now been revealed.
revealed, I realise
realise that there isis no
that there no point
point day'. Another squad unearthed and examined documents.
~:r ~':i:,n=d
Israel and to stand t~:~r!v~!to~~~~~::~~c:Jr~~lf
in my continuing to try to avoid justice. I declare myself willing to proceed to
trial there before a competent court. willing to proceed to A third took
A third took affidavits
affidavits from
from witnesses. The fourth
witnesses. The fourth examined
examined
"It is understood
"It is understood that that I will receive legal
will receive legal counsel
counsel and
and I shall
shall try to recount.
try to recount, thousands of
thousands of documents
documents in various Jewish
in various Jewish archives
archives and
and
without
without any any embroidery.
embroidery, the the facts
facts relating
relating toto mymy last
last years
years ofof service
service inin
Germany.
Germany, so so that
that aa true
true picture
picture of the events
of the events may
may bebe transmitted
transmitted to to future
future government datarbanks
data-banks around the world. And the fifth
generations.
generations. I am submitting
been promised
submitting this
this declaration
declaration of of my
my own
own free have
will. I have
free will, not
not repared th
pprepared thee eVI -dence an
evidence andd'Inves tOg
I at'Ion ma
investigation t'al
material
en ~orfor th
J>
the
been promised anything
anything andand II have
have not been threatened.
not been threatened. II want
want at last to
at last to e
achieve
achieve inner peace.
peace. trial. The head of 06 was Commander Avraham Selinger,
"As
"As I am unable to remember all the details and may also mix things uP.
unable to remember all the details and may also mix things up, d al t all h' men were G -J
II request that II be
request that helped by
be helped by the
the putting
putting at at my
my disposal
disposal ofof documents
documents and and an
and mos all his
almost 18 men were German-Jews.
erman ews.
testimony to
testimony to assist
assist me
me inin my
my endeavour
endeavour to to establish
establish the
the truth.
truth. The trial began on 11 Apri11961
April 1961 in the Beit HaAm Hall
(sillled) Adolf
(signed) Adolf Eichmann.
Eichmann, Buenos
Buenos Aires.
Aires, May
May 1960."
1960." in
in Jerusalem, which had
Jerusalem, which had been
been rushed
rushed toto completion
completion for the
for the
On May
On May 23,
23, 1960,
1960, the
the group
group of volunteers informed
of volunteers informed the
the Govern
Govern- purpose. A bullet-proof glass cage was installed around the
ment of Israel that Eichmann was in their custody ... . . . purpose. A bullet-proof glass cage was installed around the
The Government of Israel requests that the extraordinary dock. The three judges were Moshe Landau (chairman),
significance of bringing to trial a person who bears the responsibility Dr. Benjamin Halevi and Dr. Yitzhak Raveh. The Prosecutor
for the murder of millions of our people be taken into consideration.
for consideration ...
.. was Attorney
was General Gideon
Attorney General Gideon Hausner.
Hausner. The The defence
defence
The 'Big Lie' technique of the Israeli Government did attorney was Dr. Robert Servatius, assisted by Dieter
not work with the canny Argentinians. In
In June 1960, they Wechtenbruch, both Germans.
referred the matter to the Security Council of the United As soon as the indictment had been read out, Servatius
Nations, despite much behind-the-scenes effort to induce intervened to challenge the validity of the court. He He
them to to stand down. The The Soviet Ambassador made made a suggested that (a) the judges were not objective, because of
strong attack on Argentina. The USA, Italy and France all their preconceived opinions, and (b) the court was not
took a strongly pro-Israel stance. In the end, the Security qualified to try Eichmann because (i) he had been illegally
Council voted that Israel should have to apologise for abducted from Argentina and (ii) (ii) the crimes he had been
infringing Argentina's sovereignty, and that would be the charged with had been enacted post factum. Servatius
end of the matter. In order to preserve face face with their further pointed out that the acts attributed to the accused
nationalist supporters, the Argentine Government stated were committed before the creation of the State of Israel,
that an apology would be insufficient. On 25 July 1960 against persons who were not citizens of Israel. He He said
they broke off diplomatic relations with Israel.
Israel. But a week that
that Eichmann's
Eichmann's written
written declaration that he
declaration that had come
he had come to to
later, when the fuss had died down, relations were quietly Israel of his own free will had been extracted by force: it
resumed again. was highly unlikely that a man who had been in hiding for
The Israeli
Israeli statement was a pack of lies
lies from beginning fifteen years to avoid trial would suddenly wish to appear
to end. Eichmann was not "approached by Jewish volun- volun in court. He said Eichmann was merely a functionary; just
teers". He was bundled into a car in the street by Israeli a cog in a machine, and therefore did not deserve to stand
Secret Service agents (David Ben-Gurion, Israel: A Personal trial like the
the Nazi leaders had. But even if if he should be
History). He did not go to Israel of his own free will -— his tried, it should be before an international tribunal. It
family spent the whole night searching for him after his would be well-nigh impossible to convince defence witnesses
abrupt disappearance. As for his so-called 'letter to the that it would be safe for them
that them to come to to Israel.
Argentinian Government', it just defeats description. The Attorney General, Gideon Hausner, answered the
The "letter" bears all the hallmarks of a bogus objections. First he dealt with the claim that Jewish judges
confession: numerous assurances about writing the letter could not be objective. No decent person in the world
of his own free will, willingness to go to Israel, confidence could be objective in in such a trial, he maintained. (However,
in the "competence" of the court, requests for legal he did not explain why decent neutral people from non-
counsel and documentary "aide-memoires", and above all, combatant countries like Sweden or Switzerland should
the tone of humility, guilt and "wanting to make a clean not be asked to judge the evidence.)
breast of things." The line about "a true picture of the Regarding Servatius' objection that Eichmann had been
events" being transmitted "to future generations" bears a illegally abducted, Hausner argued that this was irrelevant.
startling resemblance to Ben-Gurion's original Davar state-
state In any case, he said, the negotiations over the affair between
ment about "the entire episode" being "laid bare so that Israel
Israel and Argentina had ended successfully. (But he did
the youth in this country will know and remember". not endeavour to explain how the breaking off of diplomatic
52
52
relations between the two countries could be described as mination plant. Here again, the affidavit was a blatant
successful; someone must have pulled him up on this point forgery (which is rejected even by Jewish 'Holocaust
during the lunch-break, for in the afternoon session experts' such as Reitlinger), again written in English, and
Hausner was at pains to point out that of course the Israeli again written by a m~man who was himself executed by the
Government did not admit to abducting him, anyway.) Communists shortly after his 'confession'.
axgaed. that it would be impossible to get
Servatius had argue'! Hausner went on to try to explain away the 'Jews for
any defence witnesses to come to Israel for the trial. trucks' deal
trucks' deal which the Nazis
which the Nazis had
had conducted
conducted with
with Jewish
Jewish
Hausner replied that he would be generous and allow the representatives in Budapest. He claimed that Eichmann
introduction of written affidavits. He would even go one had done all in his power to stop Jews being allowed to
step further and agree to the submission of evidence from emigrate, in exchange for material or financial ransom. In
witnesses who had testified in German
German courts.
courts. fact, Eichmann was the main German supporter of the
Hausner had to admit that the Israeli law was ex post scheme, as explained in A Million Jews to Save, by Andr6Andr~
facto, but he argued that this was by no means unprece-
unprece Biss, one of the Hungarian Jews involved. (It has since
dented: he cited the Yalta Agreement, the London Agree Agree- been suggested that there may have been Israeli party. party
ment and the subsequent Niirnberg Trials. Without political factors involved in Hausner's pejorative dealing
retroactive law, he suggested rather candidly, the Nazis With
with the scheme. One of Biss's colleagues involved in the
would have been immune from punishment. (Undoubtedly deal was Rezso (Rudolf) Kastner, who gave an affidavit at
the same rule would not apply to Israeli war-crimes, such Niimberg (2605-PS), emigrated to Israel and became a
Niirnberg
as the massacre at Deir Yassin.) leading member of Ben Gurion's Mapai party. A scandal
Hausner rejected a further claim by Servatius that erupted in 1957 when another Hungarian Jew accused
Germany had already atoned for the crimes of the Nazis Kastner of having worked too closely with the Nazis.
by paying financial reparations to Israel. The Reparations Kastner sued him for libel, and soon afterwards was
Agreement could never serve as an atonement or make us mysteriously assassinated.)
forget, he maintained. He further rejected the claim that Hausner tried to pin on Eichmann responsibility for the
Eichmann was just a small cog in a large machine -— Hausner alleged Action Group executions in occupied Russia. He
intended to prove that it was Eichmann who had initiated, claimed that a Niirnberg document (003-L) by SS Gruppen-
planned, organised and implemented the attempt to fiihrer Katzmann told how 434,329 Jews had been
exterminate the Jewish people of Europe. (If Eichmann destroyed. In actual fact, the Katzmann letter described
was totally responsible for all this, one wonders why this number of Jews as having been resettled (ausgesiedelt),
hundreds of Nazis were executed at Niirnberg for the same and receiving "special treatment" (sonderbehandelt).
crime. How could hundreds of people all have "initiated" Neither of these
Neither of these terms
terms indicate
indicate extermination.
extermination.
the plan?) The first prosecution witnesses, on 18 April
Apri11961,
1961, were
To the claim that Eichmann could not be be tried
tried for police officials from the data-collation section of Bureau
crimes committed before the State of Israel was created, 06, run by Naftali Bar-Shalom. Most of the documents he
Hausner countered that despite the fact that Israel did not presented had been gleaned from Jewish documentation
exist de jure at the time, the Great Powers had recognised centres throughout the world, in particular a source in
the 'Nation of Israel' as a party to the war against London
London which
which had
had had
had access
access to the entire
to the German
entire German
Germany. He submitted a document, dated 1950, in which Foreign Ministry records from 1870 to 1945. The records
the governments of the USA, Britain and France invited had been captured almost in their entirety and shipped to
Israel, rather belatedly, to join them in putting an end to England at the end of the war.
the state of war with Germany. (So if the Nation of Israel On 20 April, Chief Inspector Avner Less, in charge of
was "at war with Germany", then the Germans were quite the 06 Interrogation squad, submitted the tapes of
entitled to put the Jews in concentration camps -— as Eichmann's interrogation, together with the 3564-page
interned enemy aliens, just like the Americans did with the transcription. However, Eichmann's attitude during the
Japanese in California, and the British did with stray interrogation sessions was remarkably different from that
Germans on the Isle of Man.) he displayed otherwise. A A Protestant minister, Rev.
Needless to say, the judges were not impressed by William.
William Hull, who had access to Eichmann during his
Servatius' last-ditch efforts. They ruled that the indictment incarceration, admitted that the contrast was puzzling. On
was valid. Judge Landau reiterated that justice would be tape Eichmann had said, "I am prepared to be punished
guaranteed, as every man was presumed innocent until for the
the black events and
and I know that
that the. death sentence
proved guilty. (Neatly ignoring the public utterances of awaits me. I do not request mercy for I do not deserve it."
almost the entire Israeli establishment, including the Prime Hull reported that when he had asked Eichmann to make a
Minister himself.) confession before God, Eichmann had replied, "I have
Eichmann pleaded Not Guilty. done nothing wrong." Even Servatius had to acknowledge
Hausner opened his case with what appeared to be be a ten- that Eichmann "did not anticipate the death sentence."
hour long pr~cis
precis of some cheap Holocaust pot-boiler. He The trial was interrupted for a few days for Israel's
distorted and misrepresented almost every single point of Independence Day celebrations. In a special broadcast to
evidence he referred to. He attempted to portray Eichmann the nation, Ben Gurion did not miss the chance to make
as a vehement anti-Zionist, when in fact he was quite the political capital out of Eichmann's demise; again paying his
reverse, as the Kimche brothers relate at some length in usual regard to sub judice rules:
The Secret Roads. He referred to the Niirnberg affidavit This is not anan ordinary trial nor only a trial. Here, forfor the first
of Dieter Wisliceny, Eichmann's assistant, as if it was time in
in Jewish history, historical justice is being done by the sovereign
genuine, when in fact Wisliceny was tortured by the Jewish people ... It It is not an individual that is in the dock .atat this
Soviets into signing
Soviets into signing the affidavit, which
the affidavit, which was
was written
written in
in historic trial and
historic trial and not
not the Nazi regime
the Nazi alone but
regime alone anti-Semitism
but anti-Semitism
" th throughout history. The judges whose business is the law and who
English.
English. He referred to the affidavit of Rud 0 If H
of Rudolf Hoss,
oss, thee may
may be
be trusted to adhere
trusted to adhere to
to it
it will
will judge
judge Eichmann
Eichmann the man for
the man for his
his
Commandant at Auschwitz, saying that Eichmann and horrible crimes, but responsible public opinion in the world will be
Hoss had jointly chosen the site for the Auschwitz exter-exter judging anti-Semitism.
53
 After the celebrations, the court got back to work again,
~hrough Eichmann's interrogation
going through interrogation. records. It trans
trans-
pired that Eichmann had sown the seeds of his own
.•downfall
downfall in 1957, when he had bumped into an ex-SS man
by the name of Sassen in Buenos Aires. Sassen had
suggested that the two should make a bit of money by
writing a book about the war, based on Eichamnn's
experiences. Eichmann agreed, and submitted to hours of
question-and-answer sessions with Sassen, which were all
put down on tape. But after the sessions got under way,
Sassen began to get a little bit frustrated, partly because
Eichmann's memory was so hazy, and partly because what
he could recall was chronically boring. Eichmann agreed
that Sassen should use some poetic licence to liven up the
story. Sassen transcribed the tapes, and then Eichmann
added comments and corrections in the margins. He also
wrote out by hand a further 83 pages of comments.
Sassen
Sassen found
found that
that it
it was
was more
more difficult
difficult than
than he
he had
had
imagined, trying to sell the story, and ironically it was not
until Eichmann was arrested three years later that Sassen
was able to find a market. The story was featured in Life
magazine for the week 28 November/5 December 1960,
thus indicating that the work was no historical archive; it
was popularised semi-fiction. The feature was full of
factual errors; for example it was stated that Himmler was
already in command of the Reserve Army by April 1944,
when in fact he did not become head until after the July
1944 plot against Hitler's life.
The prosecution had obtained some of the interview
material direct from Sassen. The tapes themselves had
'disappeared'. Instead, they produced photo-copies of the
83 pages of Eichmann's hand-written notes, which were
admitted, and a 300-page transcription (again photo- photo
copied) of 62 out of 67 tape sessions, which the defence
challenged. The court agreed to admit only those pages
which bore Eichmann's handwritten margin-notes.
On 25 April, Hausner went to town with the Wisliceny
affidavit. The
The affidavit claimed that Eichmann had had "told"
"told"
Wisliceny that Himmler had ordered the Jews to be exter- exter
minated in April 1942. At the end of 1944, "Hitler had
ordered that all executions of Jews were to cease, but
Eichmann refused to obey unless he received a written
directive signed by Himmler." The affidavit also noted
Eichmann's ties with the Mufti of Jerusalem, and made it
clear that the Mufti was "most impressed" with the Nazis'
solution to the Jewish question, and they with him.
According to Wisliceny, the Mufti had asked for one of
Eichmann's
Eichmann's assistants to be
assistants to be loaned
loaned to him in
to him in Palestine
Palestine after
after
a German/Arab victory. He He went on to say that the only
reason the "trucks for Jews" plan had failed was because
the Mufti had intervened with Himmler, anxious lest the
ransomed Jews should decide to go to Palestine.
From beginning to end, the Wisliceny "affidavit" stinks.
The un-natural emphasis on the Mufti of Jerusalem, the
attempts to smear him as a Nazi and the ludicrous portraying
of him as a lever on German policy in Hungary -— these are
just the kind of propaganda points which Zionists would
think of, not minor Gestapo functionaries in Slovakia. As
previously pointed out, Wisliceny signed the affidavit,
which was written in English, after being tortured by
Soviet jailers and interrogated by 'American' investigators
at Bratislava Prison inin Czechoslovakia. He was executed
immediately afterwards, before he could change his mind.
Factual errors abound in the affidavit; for example it is
claimed
claimed that the German
that the German invasion
invasion of
of Poland
Poland added
added 3 3
million Jews to the Reich -— in fact there were only around
one million.
54
54
Sundry human witnesses were then called to testify to
the vigour, dynamism and heroism of the Jewish people.
Out of 102 witnesses for the prosecution, at least ninety
had not only never met Eichmann, but until tl].ethe end of the
war had never even heard his
war his name.
name. A
A Professor Salo Baron
asserted that in 1939, the world Jewish population was
16V2 million (an accurate figure) but that after the war
16lh
only 10lh
IOV2 million remained. This figure is rather doubtful,
to say the least. The New.
New York Times on 22.2.48 estimated
the post-war world Jewish population at between 15lh 15%
million and 18%·
18% million. TheThe official American Jewish
Committee estimate published in the 1945 World Almanac
was 15 million. The 1946 figure was 15% million, which
was retained for the 1947, 1948 and 1949 editions. Baron
also alleged that the Nazis had 9.8 million Jews under their
rule. This again is wildly inaccurate. According to Chambers
Encyclopaedia, there were only 6y2 6lh million Jews in the
whole of pre-war Europe; 3 million of these escaped to
Allied countries, and lh lA million were living in Britain or
neutral European countries anyway. So there were only
around 3 million Jews remaining within the Reich.
Eichmann's defence strategy was essentially an acknow-
acknow
ledgement of reality. Like the Niirnberg defendants before
him, to have challenged the extermination legend would
have been to have challenged the whole basis of the court's
political being. His only possible line of defence was to
admit that exterminations had happened, but deny any
personal involvement. His His fundamental attitude was that
he had been only a cog in a machine, merely organising
transportation, in obedience to orders which could not be
disobeyed. InIn fact at
at no point throughout the trial was any
evidence produced to the contrary. There was no way that
Eichmann could have been responsible for what went on
in the camps -— his task was administering transportation,
not formulating policy. A A secondary feature of his
testimony was that, however lowly he was, he had done his
best to sabotage the extermination programme as soon as
he had learnt of its existence.
Eichmann's attempts to explain away, rather than
explain, his role, cut little ice with the court. The trial
lasted four months. Four more months passed before the
judges handed down their verdict -— guilty on all fifteen
counts of the indictment. In In his summing up, Justice
Landau spoke of the many questions to which the trial had
drawn attention:
What are the psychological and social causes of the group hatred
known as anti-Semitism? Can this ancient disease be cured, and if so,
how?
The court passed sentence of death on 15 December
1961, having noted that Israeli law precludes the death
penalty, except in Holocaust cases. On 31 May 1962, after
appealing in vain as far as the highest functionary in the
land, President Ben-Zvi, Eichmann mounted the scaffold.
The Rev. Hull again offered his assistance, but Eichmann
told him that he would go to his death calmly, believing in
Nature rather than God. He gave his blessing to Germany,
Austria and Argentina and was hanged on the stroke of
midnight. His
His body was ,cremated
cremated in a gas-oven, and next
day his ashes were carried three miles out to sea by a police
launch and unceremoniously dumped into the Mediter- Mediter
ranean.
ranean.
EICHMANN THE ZIONIST
The irony of Eichmann's trial by the Israelis is that he himself
was a staunch Zionist and gave much assistance to the Zionist cause,
both before and during the war.
 He first
He first became
became converted to to Zionism
Zionism in in 1935,
1:935, after reading,
reading, asas by a German court, immediately after the war, war, in
in
part ofpf his SSSS training,
training, the Zionist classic The Jewish State,
the Zionist State, written
written: connection with his role at Auschwitz, and quitequite·a
a few of
by the
by the inventor of Zionism,
Zionism, the the journalist
journalist Theodor
Theodor Herzl.
Herzl. (The
(The
title of the book
original title book waswas AnAn Address
Address to to the Rothschilds.) the other 21 defendants at this Auschwitz Trial were
Eichmann described himself as being
Eichmann being promptly and permanently standing trial for the second time on basically the same
converted to to Zionism.
Zionism. Henceforth,
Henceforth, he thought of nothing but but a charges. The Bonn Government refused to allow as an
"political solution" for the Jewish Jewish question and and how to "get "get some observer at the trial the writer Paul Rassinier, who had
firm ground under the feet feet of the Jews."
Jews." himself been interned at Buchenwald and had had written
He was reported as having having protested against
against the desecration of
Herzl's grave in
HerzFs in Vienna
Vienna in in 1939 andand was seen
seen in in civilian
civilian clothes at at several books denying the existence of gas-chambers.
the commemoration ceremony on the thirty-fifth anniversary of The court did not, of course, ignore legal matters
Herzl's death. In 1937, Eichmann and and a functionary from his his office entirely, and it took the trouble to explain that the Bonn
made a visit to Palestine at the the formal
formal invitation of a Zionist official. Government considered itself the legal successor to the
But only after climbing Mount Haifa,
But Haifa, he
he was arrested by the British
authorities and deported to Egypt. In In Cairo,
Cairo, he he was visited by a Third Reich, and was thus competent to try persons for
representative from
representative para'military organisation Haganah. infringing laws which were in
the Zionist para-military
from the in force in0Germany
innGermany during the
Nowadays, the Zionists try to shift responsibility for Eichmann's war period. Killing Jews had been illegal in Nazi Germany,
visit to the Mufti, but there is no doubt that Eichmann empathised and thus the majority of the defendants were charged in in
more with the Zionists, as their political philosophy directly
coincided with that of the Nazis, i.e. i.e. the dissimilation of the Jews that respect.
from
from Europe and and their despatch to a land of their own (usually Being a normal court of law, rather than an ad-hoc
thought of as Palestine — - but Madagascar, Uganda Uganda andand Kazakhstan Military Tribunal, a rather higher standard of evidence was
all been considered).
have all demanded at Frankfurt than at Niirnberg. However, such
The liaison did not end with the internment of Jewish dissidents. .high-standard evidence was
The was not forthcoming. The court
In The Secret Roads, two prominent British Zionists Jon Jon and
and David
Kimche describe how Eichmann co-operated in in the recruitment of was forced to acknowledge that the only documentary
Jewish pioneers
pioneers to to be illegally and secretly settled in Palestine. The The proof was "a few few not very valuable documents." The
Kimches describe how two young Jewish settlers made their way evidence was "almost exclusively witness testimonies."
back to Berlin and Vienna in 1938 in order to put the scheme to the Unlike a normal trial, they said, in this case there was no
Gestapo. Eichmann readily agreed to the plan, and even even expelled a corpse to examine, no post-mortem, no murder weapon,
group of nuns
group nuns from a convent to provide provide a training farm for the the
young Jewish By the end of 1938, about a thousand Jews no
~migr~s. By
Jewish Emigre's. no finger-prints, no forensic evidence and no proof linking
were being provided with training in in these establishments. The two the defendants with any victim. They pointed out that
emissaries were allowed to visit internment camps and select the previous convictions on such weak evidence had proved
most able Jewish youngsters for for training and subsequent passage to unjust: "Only a few weeks ago we we read in
in the newspapers
Palestine.
Palestine.
that a member of the Buchenwald concentration camp
The Kimche brothers paid paid eloquent tribute to Eichmann's efforts
on behalf of the Jews in The Secret Roads: "Eichmann may go staff had been convicted of murdering an inmate who, it is an is'
down in history as one of the arch murderers of the Jewish people, clear today, is alive and was certainly not murdered."
but he entered the lists as an active worker in the rescue of the Jews The court was careful to skate around the thorny
from Europe." They go on to point out that the Zionist agents in problem of the witnesses' objectivity. Almost all the
Europe regarded the British as "the chief enemy" -— not Germany.
Even during the war itself, Eichmann still still liaised with his Zionist witnesses were from Iron Curtain countries. They had all
friends. In 1944, when he was stationed in Budapest, he negotiated been circulated with portfolios of notes, to "refresh their
a deal
deal with Dr. ReszoReszQ Kastner, a leader of the Hungarian Jewish memories", by self-appointed organisations such as the
community, whereby Jews would be allowed to emigrate to to neutral "Comity
"Comit~ International d'Auschwitz" and the "Comity"Comit~ des
countries in exchange for the Germans being supplied with trucks,
tractors, food
food supplies and foreign exchange. However, the deal Camps". Even the mayor of Frankfurt had made improper
hardly got off the ground -— only a couple of thousand Jews got to to suggestions regarding what kind of evidence the witnesses
Switzerland -— when the Allied governments squashed the scheme. should give.
In the end, the only charges which stuck were of a
nature completely isolated from the extermination charge.
Mulka was found guilty of having signed an order form for
a batch of Zyklon B pesticide, of having been in charge of
the motor pool, which transported internees to and fro,
RECENT TRIALS TRIALS and of having been involved in the construction of the
crematoria for the victims of typhus. He was sentenced to
The Eichmann Trial in Israel had one major side effect 14 years' hard labour, but was released after only four
in that it sparked off yet another wave of "war-guilt months on health grounds. Defendant Franz Hofmann, ex-
hysteria" in West Germany. In order to assuage their SS Captain who had been in charge of Auschwitz I,
public consciences, the German authorities swooped on a received a life sentence for having thrown a bottle at a
number of unsuspecting citizens and promptly put them prisoner who later died from the head injury received. But
on show-trial. One of the first victims was Richard Baer, Hofmann too was released shortly afterwards, on the
successor to Hoss and last commandant of Auschwitz, who grounds that he had previously served a sentence.
was arrested on 20 December 1960 near Hamburg, where In June 1976, the trial finally ended in Hamburg of six
he was working as a lumberjack. He was imprisoned and former Nazis charged with involvement in the murder of
interrogated, but steadfastly denied that the Auschwitz "more than a million" Jews in wartime ghettos and
"gas-chambers" had ever existed. Unfortunately he did not concentration camps. The trial, interrupted by frequent
live
live long enough to take this position in court, for he died illness among the six, had lasted 3lh
SlA years -— the longest in
in prison on 17 June 1963, at the age of 51, apparently Hamburg's history. All were acquitted due to lack of
from a circulatory ailment, although his wife considered evidence.
his death rather mysterious. Karl Streibel, 72, former SS officer and commandant of
When the trial finally opened in Frankfurt in December Trawnike Labour Camp was the chief accused. The others
1963, the principal defendant was one Robert K. L. Mulka, were Michael Janczak (72), Kurt Reinberger (65), Erwin
an ex-SS Captain who had served briefly as adjutant to Mittrach (67), Theodor Pentzick (68) and Joseph
Hoss at Auschwitz. Mulka had been tried and sentenced, Napietralla (68).
55
 THE ITALIAN
THE ITALlAN TRIALS
TRIALS
Probably the first achievement of the backlash of
opinion against the war trials was the commutation in in
1947 of death sentences passed
paSsed on several German generals
tried in Italy.
The best known of these was Field Marshal Kesselring,
chief of the German forces in Italy. In 1945 this aged
intemed in the so-called Ash Can at
German soldier was interned
Mondorf Camp near Luxembourg, along with many others
from the German military top brass. From there he went
Niimberg, where he
to Niirnberg, he was kept in solitary confinement
for five punish-
five months, with no reason being given for this punish
ment. His solitude waswas only interrupted by several sessions
as a defence witness for Goring during his trial as a war
criminal. Kesselring notes only two episodes from the trial
in his
in his memoirs.
memoirs.
He recalls that he had gone to great lengths to explain to
attacks· on Poland in 1939
the court that the German air attacks
had been scrupulously planned in accordance with the
Hague Convention. But in in a deliberate act of obtuseness,
the British prosecutor Sir Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe fired a
parting shot with the rhetorical question, "So you allowed
Polish towns to be 'attacked intemational
attacked in violation of international
law?"
law?" - _
Kesselring's reply sounds haughty today, but at that
time was the perfectly sincere response of a principled
German officer: "I have given my evidence as a German
officer with over forty years' service, as a Field Marshal
and on oath! If my statements are so little respected I shall
make no further depositions."
Later, one of the defence counsel Dr. Latemser,
Laternser, wanted
to know about the activities of the Communist partisans
in Italy. Immediately the Soviet prosecutor, General
Rudenko, sprang to his feet to object. "The witness," he
declared, "seems to me the least fitted on this subject."
After lengthy deliberations, most of the discussion out of
court, the tribunal ruled that that was the end of the
subject.
Kesselring next found himself at Dachau, the war-time
concentration camp which the Allies were using as a
clearing house for PoWs and war criminals. The Field
Marshal was squashed into a tiny cell with Field Marshals
von Brauchitsch and Milch, Secretary of State Bohle,
Ambassador von Bargen plus an ordinary soldier.
From there it was back to Niimberg
Niirnberg again, to be grilled
by the American Army's 1984-ish Historical Division. The
Historical Division had been set up to write, or rather re- re
write, the history of the war, and needed to interrogate
Kesselring in order to make allowance for any unfortunate
contingencies, such as facts, or eye-witness accounts,
which might otherwise throw the Division's authoritative
description into some disarray at some stage in the future.
In the autumn of 1946, the Field Marshal was moved to
London, where he spent a month in the well-known
Kensington Cage, where he was again de-briefed about his
war experiences. Kesselring's memoirs note that during one
of his sessions with a Jewish interrogation officer, he
warned the Jew that if they insisted on pursuing their
stated policy of revenge against the German nation, they
would only be sowing the seeds of anti-semitism, not just
in Germany, but throughout the westem
western world.
Around this time, the trial opened in Rome of Generals
von Mackensen and MaIzer, Malzer, who were accused of the
shooting of 335 Italians in the Ardeatine catacombs near
Rome on 24 March 1944. Kesselring was able to give
evidence on behalf of his comrades, but his six days on the
56
witness stand
witness stand were
were in
in vain.
vain. The
The two
two were
were sentenced
sentenced to
to
death.
death.
was very quickly to find himself
But Kesselring himself was
His trial
on the receiving end of British military "justice". His
at Venice lasted three months from February to May 1947.
On the first day of the case, Kesselring's defence counsel
delayed" but the prosecution
had been unavoidably delayed,
demanded to be able to to- proceed without him being
represented at all. Fortunately aa British officer intervened
and told the prosecutor: "This trial must not be allowed to
become aa farce from the very start."
start. "
The military tribunal contained only one person with
any legal training whatsoever — - the same judge who had
presided over the Rome trial three months earlier. There
were two charges. One was the same charge of murdering
the Italians, which had resulted in death sentences on
incite-
Kesselring's colleagues. The second was a charge of incite
ment to murder, which alleged that Kesselring had issued
two orders to his troops to murder civilians. The only
prosecution evidence which was presented was a portfolio
of affidavits.
of affidavits. There
There were
were no
no human
human witnesses
witnesses on
on the
the
prosecution side. The affidavits had not been taken down
by any person authorised to administer an oath, but had
somehow been 'compiled' on the basis of third-hand
information, passed on years after the incidents took place.
When such affidavits were presented to Italian courts, most
of them were proved to be either untrue or wildly
exaggerated. It turned out that many of the misdeeds
which had actually taken place were not the work of
German soldiers, but of Italian Fascists, such as the Brigata
Nera, or partisans wearing stolen German uniforms.
Kesselring was able to obtain the assistance of four
extremely able defence counsel: Dr. Laternser,Latemser, Dr.
Frohwein, Dr. Schiitze
Schutze and Prof. Schwinge. They pointed
out to the court that all responsibility for reprisals against
guerilla operations had been transferred from the army to
the SD, so Kesselring could not have bomeborne any guilt for
what excessive reprisals did occur. In fact, according to
Kesselring, thE!'
the* army attempted to circumvent many of the
SD's reprisal plans, but their hand was forced by
continuous assassinations and ambushes, not just of
Germans, but of Italian businessmen and police, by com-com
munist partisans. Kesselring was obliged to issue his own
authorisation for local army commanders to take whatever
anti-guerilla actions necessary. He emphasises that this was
not an order to take such action, simply an authorisation
that such could be taken. The authorisation was a direct
reply to the broadcasts of Field Marshals Alexander and
Badoglic, who were exhorting the Italians to murder as
many Germans as possible and step up the guerilla war.
Kesselring points out that the official US Army handbook
Rules of Land Warfare also authorises such tactics, even
including the execution of hostages (article 358d).
Although an Italian court returned a not guilty verdict
against one Kappeler, a member of the SD who was facing
similar charges to the Field Marshal, the British military
tribunal found Kesselring guilty on all counts. On 6 May
1947, he was sentenced to death by firing squad.
There was considerable public unrest about the verdict.
A Col. Scotland, who had befriended Kesselring whilst he
was intemed
interned in the Kensington Cage, published a booklet
on the trial, The Kesselring Case, which focused public
attention on the affair even more. The Italian Archbishop
of Chieti declared that Kesselring had at all times behaved
in an exemplary fashion during the German occupation.
"The attitude and behaviour of Field Marshal Kesselring
deserve all public praise," he wrote, "The name of the
 Field Marshal
Field Marshal will
will always
always be
be blessed
blessed here"
here" (in
(in Chieti).
Chieti). In
In recent
recent years
years there
there has
has notnot been
been any
any attempt
attempt toto look
look
Eventually the
Eventually the death
death sentences
sentences on on Kesselring
Kesselring and
and his
his at
at the
the war
war crimes
crimes trials
trials from
from aa clinical
clinical point
point ofof view.
view. The
The
comrades were
comrades were commuted
commuted to to life
life imprisonment.
imprisonment. He He spent
spent odd
odd feature
feature onon Niirnberg
Niirnberg in in part-work
part-work history
history serials
serials isis
five years
five years in
in forced
forced labour
labour at
at internment
internment camps
camps inin Austria
Austria usually
usually soso fatuous
fatuous as as to
to bebe ridiculous.
ridiculous. A A photo
photo caption
caption inin
before being
before being released, due to
released, due to ill
ill health,
health, in
in 1952.
1952. InIn 1950
1950 World War
World War IIII No.
No. 110
110 reads
reads "Even
"Even thethe defendants,
defendants, their
their
and 1951,
and 1951, the
the Bavarian
Bavarian denazification
denazification courts
courts had
had looked
looked counsel,
counsel, and
and contemporary
contemporary opinion opinion inin Germany
Germany admitted
admitted
yet again
yet again at
at the
the Italian
Italian anti-guerilla
anti-guerilla operations
operations (regardless
(regardless that it
that it had
had been
been aa fair
fair trial."
trial. "
of any
of any technical
technical principles
principles of
of double
double jeopardy)
jeopardy) and and had
had In the
In the United
United States
States too,
too, there
there were
were rumblings
rumblings of of dis
dis-
found those
found those involved
involved toto be
be not
not culpable.
culpable. content
content about
about Niirnberg.
Niirnberg. Rather
Rather ironically,
ironically, Chief
Chief Justice
Justice
Field Marshal
Field Marshal Kesselring
Kesselring died
died atat the
the age
age of
of 75
75 in
in 1960.
1960. ~tone, on
Stone, on whose
whose death
death thethe Niirnberg
Niirnberg proceedings
proceedings werewere
interrupted
mterrupted for for aa few
few minutes
minutes for for the
the participants
'participants to to
express
express their respect,
respect, was opposed
opposed to to the
the trials.
trials. Just
Just before
he died,
he died, he
he had
had written
written that:
that:
CRITICISM OF
CRITICISM OF THE
THE TRIALS
TRIALS It
It would
would not
not disturb
disturb me
me greatly
greatly ifif the
the power
power (of
(of the
the victors)
victors) were
were
openly
openly and
a~d frankly
f!ankly used
used to
to punish
pUI?-ish the
the German
German leaders
leaders for
for being
being aa bad
bad
To a~ certain extent, Churchill
Churchill had been
been proved
proved right lot,
lot, but
but it
It disturbs
dIsturbs me
me some
some toto have
have itit dressed
dressed up
up in
in the
the habiliments
habiliments
over Niirnberg;
Nurnberg; the long, drawn-out trial did tend to create of
of the
the common
common law law and
and the
the constitutional
constitutional safeguards
safeguards to to those
those
over
charged with
charged with crime.
public its
public sympathy for the defendants, rather than achieve its (quoted
(quoted byby Alpheus Mason
Mason inin Harvard Law Review, Dec. Dec. 1953)
1953)
objective of "exposing the Nazi war crimes in in all their
Stone was not alone in voicing this disquiet. Senator
horror." It was not long before books began to be published Taft spoke out openly against the hypocrisy of Niirnberg
which questioned the whole validity of the trials. July
which (see New York Times, 6.10.46), as did Pitman B. Potter,
1948 saw the publication of the first such title Advance toto the secretary of the American Association of International
Barbarism, by "A. Jurist", published by Thomson & Smith Law
~td. An American edition, revised and enlarged, appeared
Law (see
(see NYT, 2.6.46) and Federal Judge Charles E.
Ltd.
Wyzanski Jr.
m May 1953, published by the Nelson Publishing Co.
in Co. of
A vi~orous debate
A vigorous ~ebate ensued, with outraged newspaper
This American edition was translated
Appleton, Wisconsin. This columnists
colummsts leaping
leapmg vocally to the defence of the trials.
into Spanish and published by Editorial Ahr of Barcelona Walter Lippman writing in in the New York Times (8.6.46)
in March 1954 under the title El Crimen de Nuremberg.
The book finally got into German in October 1954 under habeas corpus and
compared Niirnberg with Magna Carta, habeas
the American Bill of Rights. (It is rather ironic that
the title Der Barbarei Entgegen, published by Nolke Verlag Lippman should have compared Niirnberg as a development
of Hamburg. A revised German edition was also published from habeas corpus, since that legal right had largely been
by Priester Verlag of Wiesbaden in April 1962. The negated, as far as the Nazis were concerned. Even the Nazis'
American edition was serialised in the Dublin Sunday Press
wives
wives were locked up for months on end without charge.)
in six instalments, during January and February 1955. "A.
. He
He described
described it
it as:
Jurist" finally acquired an identity during this time; he
he
A development in
A in human justice which our descendants may well
turned out out to
to be
be F.F. J.
J. P. Veale.
Veale. The
The book
book received
received consider the event of modern times.
surprising support from various prominent people. Lord Certainly the holding of the war crimes trials was a mile-
mile
Hankey mentions it in the preface to his own book Politics:
stone in world history, but whether Niirnberg can be
Trials & Errors, and expresses his indebtedness for the
& Errors,
inspiration. In fact, Hankey even supplied the preface for properly compared with the Magna Carta, or whether it
Veale's follow-up book Crimes Discreetly Veiled, published might not have rather more in common with the Star
by Cooper Book Company in 1958, which deals with Chamber, is rather open to debate. Let us now look at the
Allied trials critically, but clinically.
Allied war-crimes.
war-crimes.
..Another early work to challenge the principles of THE CH:'-RGES
CHARGES could have been drawn up by some
Niirnberg was Montgomery Belgion's Epitaph on Nurem
Nurnberg Nurem- poet or philosopher, for no specific item of legislation,
berg, also published in 1948. Although this too went into legislature, was alleged to"
passed by any specified legislature, to have
an A~erican
American edition, as Victor's Justice, its rather
been broken. For someone to be charged with a crime
necessit~tes
necessitates thei~
their breaking a law. No country had, or has, a
eccentrlC
eccentric style did not attract a wide circulation.
law agaInst
against wagIng
waging war. Neither does any country have a
~951
1951 saw the pUblication
publication of Viscount Maugham's
weighty book UNO
weIghty UNO and War Crimes, which put forward law against waging 'aggressive' war. Who defines the
polite criticism, and R. T. Paget's more forthright Manstein aggression? When Britain and France invaded Egypt in
-— Campaigns
Campaigns and Trial.
Trial. Mr. Paget (now Lord Paget) was
1956, their leaders and generals were not arrested and
the
the chief
chief defence
defence counsel
counsel for
for General
General Manstein
Manstein in
in the
the
charged with waging aggressive war.
British Military Tribunal at Hamburg in 1951. Paget was Every single one of the charges could have been equally
Labour MP for Northampton from 1945 to 1974, and was well laid at the Allies' door. Consider:
probably one of the most unusual Labour MPs ever to sit 1. Conspiracy to wage war
in the House of Commons. For a time he was Honorary
the Anglo-French planned invasion of Norway
Secretary of the CIA-financed European Movement. In Stalin's planned invasion of Poland
1958 he published a book, together with fellow Labourite
Roosevelt's plans to to enmesh
enmesh the
the USA
USA in the the war
war
Sidney
Sidney Silverman MP MP attacking capital punishment. For
many years Paget was Master of the Pytelly Foxhounds, 2. Crimes
Crimes against
against peace
much
much to to the
the embarrassment
embarrassment of of his
his fellow
fellow MPs.
MPs. And
And even
even Stalin's invasion of Poland and Finland
Stalin's
more worrying
worrying toto them,
them, a few
few years
years before
before he
he retired
retired he
he Britain's
Britain's invasion
invasion of Iraq
Iraq
suggested
suggested that
that for
for every
every British
British soldier murdered
murdered in in Britain's
Britain's sinking
sinking of the
the French
French fleet
fleet at
at Oran
Oran
Northern
Northern Ireland,
Ireland, IRA
IRA internees
internees should
should bebe shot.
shot. It
It has
has American
American invasion
invasion of
of Iceland
Iceland and
and Greenland
Greenland
since
since been
been suggested
suggested that
that Paget
Paget was
was 'booted
'booted upstairs'
upstairs' to
to 3.
3. War
War crimes
crimes
the
the House
House of
of Lords
Lords to
to keep
keep him
him out
out of
of the
the way.
way. the
the wanton
wanton destruction
destruction of
of German
German cities
cities
57
57
 the Soviets' murder and ill-treatment of German PoWs by the defendant, that was just too bad. Ribbentrop's
the use ofGe~ans
of Germans as slave labourers after the war, in all'
all counsel told him that the defendants ought to be clear clear in
the Allied European countries their minds that the defence counsel were were not their clients'
4. Crimes
4. Crimes against
against humanity
humanity 'lackeys'. Rosenberg had the impression that the defence
the Soviet massacre of Poles at Katyn, the Anglo- counsel literally hated their clients. Hess's counsel once
American bombing of civilian targets; the Soviet atrocities worked for the Berlin taxi-drivers' union. The defendants
against their own people, before and during the War; the were not allowed to examine witnesses themselves, only
American concentration camps for American-Japanese. their counsel could do this, despite a rule in the court's
Standing Orders which stated otherwise.
There
There were some truly
were some truly brazen examples of
brazen examples of double-
double- Formal
Formal rules
rules of of evidence
evidence werewere disregarded,
disregarded, and the
and the
standards in
standards in the
the indictment.
indictment. In
In order
order for
for the
the Soviets
Soviets to
to tribunal
tribunal was
was allowed
allowed to "take judicial
to "take judicial note"
note" of of hearsay
hearsay
avoid looking
avoid looking like hypocrites on
like hypocrites on the
the aggressive
aggressive war
war charge,
charge, evidence,
evidence, unsigned
unsigned affidavits,
affidavits, in in fact
fact anything
anything which
which thethe
they demanded
they demanded the the insertion
insertion ofof aa clause
clause inin the
the indictment
indictment prosecution thought might be of "probative
prosecution thought might be of "probative value". The value". The
which specified
which specified that only "Aggression
that only carried out
"Aggression carried out by
by the
the defence
defence were
were notnot allowed
allowed access
access toto much
much vital
vital evidence,
evidence,
European Axis" was to be the basis of the
European Axis" was to be the basis of the charges! They charges! They and
and when they did
when they did locate
locate any
any they
they hadhad to to explain
explain itsits
tried aa different
tried different tactic
tactic with
with Charge
Charge 4. 4. In
In order
order toto avoid
avoid any
any relevance before its
relevance before its introduction
introduction couldcould even
even bebe considered.
considered.
counter-charges over
counter-charges over Katyn,
Katyn, theythey insisted
insisted thatthat the
the Despite
Despite promises
promises to to the
the contrary,
contrary, the' the* defence
defence counsel
counsel
Germans
Germans be charged with
be charged with this crime! When
this crime! When it it became
became clear
clear hardly ever received copies of prosecution evidence,
hardly ever received copies of prosecution evidence, or or
during the
during the trial
trial that
that the
the subject
subject waswas going
going to to bebe an
an knew
knew which
which prosecution witnesses were
prosecution witnesses were to to bebe called.
called.
embarrassing one
embarrassing one for
for all
all concerned,
concerned, it it was
was quietly
quietly dropped,
dropped, Throughout the
Throughout the proceedings
proceedings they they were
were treated
treated like naughty
like naughty
and no
and no mention
mention of it was
of it was included
included inin the
the final verdict.'
final verdict. children by tribunal and court staff
children by tribunal and court staff alike. alike.
The fourth charge
The fourth charge on on the indictment, "crimes
the indictment, against
"crimes against Only one tu
Only one tu quoque
quoque (thou(thou also)
also) argument
argument was was allowed
allowed
humanity", specifically included atrocities
humanity", specifically included atrocities committed committed during the
during the defence
defence case,
case, inin relation
relation to the less
to the less contentious
contentious
against the
against Jews etc.
the Jews etc. before
before the
the outbreak
outbreak of of war,
war, viz.:
viz.: issue
issue of
of submarine
submarine warfare.
warfare. TheThe defence
defence werewere not
not allowed
allowed
murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other t raise
to . any arguments ts bbasedd on th the V aill Treaty,
Versailles Tr t
inhumane acts committed
inhumane acts committed against
against any
any civilians
civilians before or during
before or during war;
war; 0 r81se any argumen ase on e ers es ea y,
and the persecution
and the persecution on
on religious,
religious, racial
racial or
or political
political grounds
grounds in
in Soviet atrocities, Allied bombing, the expulsion of German
execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction settlers or maltreatment of German PoWs.
in violation of the domestic law of
of the tribunal, whether or not in In
In case the defence tried to mitigate their clients' role,
the country where perperated. (our
(our emphasis) by
by claiming
claiming they
they were
were acting
acting under
under orders,
orders, the
the Allies
Allies had
had
This wide-ranging definition would appear to attribute taken the precaution in 1944 of altering both the American
to nations, or groups of nations, the right to interfere in and British army manuals to delete the clauses which said
others if they assess that 'crimes against humanity' are that soldiers must obey orders whether they are illegal or
being perpetrated. Secondly, how could this charge be not. Thus any defence argument would fall fall flat on its face,
included in a war crimes trial, if the act complained about since the Allies could not possibly accept that orders were
took place before the war? to be obeyed regardless of the law!
In fact·
fact" there were already laws in. in Germany which Accepted legal rules were ignored when a visiting Soviet
specifically forbade murder and atrocities, including those commissar was was allowed to sit in on the trial -— on the the
against Jews. Surely if the case against the Nazi leaders was prosecution bench. Likewise, to interrupt a trial in order
so open-and-shut, then why could they not have been tried to make a speech of appreciation for a dead judge was
under ordinary German domestic law? totally preposterous.
The truth is that the 'crimes'
'crimes' were invented
invented to fit the One cannot help wondering why, if the Nazis were as
occasion. An historic event needed spectacular-sounding evil and criminal as the indictment said they were, the
terminology. Several writers have complained that the defence were so ham-strung. Why were not neutral judges
Niirnberg involved ex post facto (i.e.
charges at Niimberg (Le. retro-
retro invited from Switzerland, Spain, Sweden or Ireland? Surely
spective) legislation, but even th.is
this criticism is inadequate, the whole idea was for justice to be done? Or was the idea
for no legislature passed any legislation. The 'crimes' were more to find the Nazis guilty with the greatest possible
just picked out of thin air. theatre, so that future generations would forever be wary
THE COURT was composed entirely of the victors. of 'racialism'? For did not Niirnberg 'prove' that racialism
Several of the judges -— Nikitchenko and Falco -— had leads to gas-chambers? Was not the 'evidence' there for all
actually been party to the London Agreement which set to see? Were
Were not the racialists condemned out of their own
up the court in the first place, as had two of the prosecutors mouths? These are the kind kind' of ideas
ideas which Niimberg
Niirnberg was
-— Jackson and Fyfe. Nikitchenko was the most candid of. of set up to instill in the minds of the public.
all, when he announced before the trial that "we are
all, THE DEFENDANTS had been arbitrarily selected
dealing here with the chief war criminals who have already according to a list thrown together by the Soviets. Soviets at
been convicted." The others were more guarded in their Potsdam. Because Himmler was dead, Kaltenbrunner was
sub judice comments. drafted in in his place. When Krupp was taken ill, the
Part of the IMT's terms of reference specified that no Americans wanted to "field" "field" his son instead.
challenges to the court's authority would be permitted. In Several of the the defendants' wives were also taken taken into
any court, either side can claim that they are in the wrong custody. Frau
Frau von Schirach, Frau Funk, Frau Frau Goring and
type of court, e.g. criminal instead of civil, magistrates' the Gorings' daughter were all arrested and kept in prison
instead of county. No such arguments were tolerated at without charge for several months. Much of their family
Niirnberg. Neither was there any appeal. In In Britain, one property was confiscated.
can appeal to the High Court, then the Court of Appeal We must conclude that it did not really matter who was
the:l the House of Lords. The
and then The Germans
Germans were
were afforded in the dock at Niirnberg, it was really the whole Nazi· Nazi
no such formalities. philosophy which was on trial. Although this was not
The defence counsel were allocated to the
The the defendants stated in so many words at the IMT, at the Eichmann Trial
by the court, and if they were not found to be adequate in J:erusalem
Jerusalem this attitude was spelt out in precise detail.
58
 THE HIDDEN ASPECT of Niirnberg et al. which no
one has properly examined to date, is the all-important
factor of Jewish representation among the prosecutors.
Although there were four different charges facing the
Niirnberg defendants, it is the last -— the extermination
charge -— which has taken on more prominence than the
others.
To discover the reason for this, it will prove useful to
examine thethe number
number of Jews who were on on the staff
staff of the
the
war crimes administrations.
administrations.
Two of the judges were Jews: Volchkov and Falco. The
Gentile Biddle had a Jewish adviser by the name of
Wechsler. The British Prosecutor Maxwell-Fyfe was part-
Jewish. The British Liaison Officer Clement Freud is aa
Jew, according to the Jewish Year Book (although he
Jewish Chronicle
wrote to the Jewish Chronicle to ask them to omit
omit him
from their list of Jewish MPs). Elwyn-Jones married a
Jewess. Calvocoressi is probably a Jew.
The American Chief Prosecutor Jackson was not a Jew,
but he had several Jews on his staff of advisers: Gliick,
Gluck,
Leventhal, Bernays and Kempner. The American documen
documen-
tary evidence was collated by a team of Jews: Krieger,
Bryson, Felton, Stone, Nathan, Robinson, Kenyon,
Schulberg, Derenberg and Jacoby. The War Crimes Branch,
which did the groundwork of evidence collation, and later
administered at N iirnberg and Dachau, was headed by
Niirnberg
another Jew, Mickey Marcus, who later went to Israel to
fight for the Haganah -— "the first Israeli general since
Biblical times". The
Biblical times". The War
War Crimes
Crimes Branch
Branch team
team at
at Dachau
Dachau
which tortured prisoners into making bogus confessions
was also composed of Jews: Ellis, Shumacker, Byrne,
By me, Perl,
Ellowitz, Thon and Kirschbaum. The head of administration
at the Dachau trials was aa Col. Rosenfeld.
The administration staff at Niirnberg were also largely
Jewish. In charge of translations were A. Jacoubovitch and
W. Frank. The documentary films were prepared by Karl
W.
Jacobi. Col. B. C. Andrus was in charge of the prisoners
before the trial, and another Jew, S. N. Binder took charge
between sentence and execution. One of the prison
psychiatrists was L. N. Goldensohn. Many of the staff were
drawn from the predominantly-Jewish OSS. The executions
were carried out on the Jewish Feast Day Hashana Raba
by a Jewish-American sergeant John C. Woods.
Several of the judges, especially Wennerstrum in AMT7,
were very well aware of this phenomenon, and said so after
the trial, although in the case of the AMT6 judge, his
remarks were not meant for publication.
Since Jews represented only a tiny proportion of the
population, it would seem very peculiar indeed that so
many of them were involved with Niirnberg. Such a
realisation immediately raises the question of who the real
instigators of the trials were. Churchill wanted the Nazi
leaders put up against a wall. Stalin wanted 50,000 put up
against a wall. The French were in no position to want
anything, they just had to go along with what the other
powers decided. It was only the Americans who were
pushing for the trials. They conceptualised them. They
planned them. They arranged them. And the American
Presidential Adviser (to both Roosevelt and Truman) was
none other than Samuel Rosenman, yet another Jew.
Indeed, if we examine the more recent Eichmann trial
in Jerusalem, which was run by the official Jewish state,
and compare it to the Niirnberg proceedings, which were
supposedly run by an 'International Tribunal', we can
detect an almost uncanny similarity. In both cases, 'crimes'
were picked out of thin air. In both cases, witnesses were
introduced who had never even known the defendant. In
59
both cases, formal rules of evidence were dropped especially
for the trial. In both cases, the defence counsel was ham- ham
strung by restrictions. In both cases, public pronouncements
were made about the guilt of the defendants before the
trial had even started. In both cases, it mattered little who
the individual was in the dock; it was 'anti-Semitism'
which was on trial. And in both cases, the end result was
inevitable. The only difference is that at the official Jewish
trial in Jerusalem, as opposed to the unofficial Jewish trial
at Niirnberg, those officiating at the trial ritual felt a little
more at liberty to be candid; at Niirnberg there were all
those stupid Goys who had to be pandered to.
At this point it may be useful to reflect on the most
recent 'war-crimes' trial of all, in Angola, where as we said,
the Angolans endeavoured to follow the example of
Niirnberg, Dachau, Jerusalem et al. Just in case the simple-
minded Angolans should begin to snarl things up, who
should be on hand but one Stephen Sedley, a London
Jewish barrister with a long record of 'combatting anti-
semitism and racialism
racialism'.'. In 1974, Sedley was one of a
gaggle of Jewish barristers who represented variou.s
various Marxist
organisations at the Scarman Inquiry into the Red Lion
Square riots of June 1974, when a left-wing student died.
Sedley was one of the most vehement of the counsel, when
it came to pillorying the National Front, the right-wing
organisation whose demonstration had been subjected to
attack by the Marxists in Red Lion Square.
In order to confirm all all this speculation, we must turn,
not to some 'right-wing crank', but to the Jewish com- com
munity themselves. In the Jewish Chronicle of 16.12.49,
there is aa report of a meeting in Glasgow addressed by a
Mr. M. Perlzweig, of the World Jewish Congress. Mr.
Perlzweig told the meeting that it was the WJC which
"had secured the holding of the Niirnberg trials at which it
had provided expert advice and much valuable evidence"
(our emphasis).
Perhaps this quote from the 'inside' will help to settle
the question of whether the Niirnberg trials were really "a
development in human justice" comparable to Magna
Carta and habeas corpus, or whether they were a cynical,
hypocritical demonstration of revenge; revenge against the
one movement which had ever dared to challenge the
power of International Jewry. In short, were the Niirnberg
and subsequent trials an exercise which could more properly
be termed: Trial By Jewry?
ALLIED &
& ISRAELI WAR
WAR CRIMES
CRIMES
LEFT UNPUNISHED
UNPUNISHED
APPENDIX A
A
THE KATYN MASSACRE
THE
In early 1940, after the simultaneous assault upon Poland by the
Soviets and the Nazis, all but a handful of the 15,000 Polish officers
taken prisoner by the USSR disappeared. When, two years later, the
Smolensk region was overrun by invading German troops, the bodies
t~ese Polish officers were found buried in Katyn
of some 4,300 of these
wood. Each man had been shot in the back of the head. All these
officers (most of whose corpses were identified) came from one of
the three camps in the USSR in which the Polish officer PoWs had
been confined. The precise fate of the other 10,000 has never been
definitely established. They were never found.
In Katyn -— A Crime Without Parallel (Tom Stacey, 1971) Louis
In
 FitzGibbon details the hideous atJ'ocity.
F!tzGibbon atrocity. As As soon
soon as as the Germans Cross inquiry, no "valid investigation" could be conducted.
discovered the mass graves
dIScovered graves in April
April 1943, their announcement to the William L.L. Shirer said
said it was suspicious that the Germans had
world was treated as aa propaganda
'world propaganda plot. plot. But
But the Germans frustrated frustrated "waited" nearly two years years before discovering the mass grave grave, and
International Committee of the Red
this by inviting the International Red Cross to said
said that "to fall
fall for
for German propaganda"
propaganda" seemed
seemed "a good good W~y
way of
investigate the find, find, and this request was backed up by the Polish trying to lose the war." Walter Lippmann ignored the story entirely.
government-in-exile in London. The Soviets' reaction was erratic erratic. In his April 29 column, he achieved the feat feat of discussing the
First of all they said that the Germans had found found an historic buriai burial Soviets' break with Poland in detail without ever mentioning the
ground. Then they furiously
gr.ound. furiously attacked the Poles for for "collaborating" gruesome story which the Soviets had used as an excuse.
with the Germans and cut off relations with them. They also refused
With Stronger methods were used to keep the story off the commercial
their (necessary) consent for for the independent Red Cross investigation. air-waves.
air-waves. American
American radioradio stations
stations operated
operated under
under licences
licences granted
granted
Deprived of the impartiality of the Red Cross Cross, the Germans bby the Federal Communications Commission, and the FCC used its
mustered
mustered an
an .impressive
impressive team
team of of forensic
forensic experts,
experts, whichwhich theythey called
called y the Federal Communications Commission, and the FCC used its
th In 1 power to influence the stations' news broadcasts, particularly the
thee International
ternatlona Medical Commission, and which included one Polish language stations in Buffalo and Detroit. Since 1942, FCC
from each of the Nazi occupied countries plus one Swiss (a
scientist from (a pressure
pressure had
had been
been applied
applied to
to any
any station
station daring
daring toto broadcast
broadcast the
the
well-known anti-Nazi). They also brought several American prisoners- 'ld t criticism
mildest ... of the USSR. Now they went to town, arraigning
of-war
of-war to Katyn to see for themselves that the investigation was fair. mi. es cntlclsm o.f the USSR. Now they went to town, arraigning
Af to Katyn to see for themselves that the investigation was fair. station representatives before the FCC and the Office of War Infor- Infor
After
.ter examining over 900 of the 4,250 corpses, the Commission mation.
mation. By
By indirect
indirect pressure,
pressure, the
the OWl
OWI and
and the
the FCC
FCC "accomplished
"accomplished
unanimously came to the conclusion that the crime was committed their purpose, namely keeping the full facts facts of the Katyn massacre
not later than April or May 1940, at a time when the Soviets story from
from the the American
American people,"
people," according
according to to aa 1952
1952 House
House of of
controlled the
controlled the area.
area. Documents
Documents in in the
the pockets
pockets of of the
the victims
victims,, trees
trees story
Representatives inquiry.
growing on the graves, the stage of decomposition -— all provided
clues.
clues.
One American official attempted to break the embargo on facts. facts.
But
But the
the tide
tide of of the
the war
war waswas turning,
turning, and and by by that
that Autumn
Autumn the the In May
In May 1944, 1944, George
George Earle,Earle, the the President's
President's special
special emissary
emissary in in
Soviets
Soviets were
were advancing
advancing westwards,
westwards, takingtaking Katyn
Katyn in in September
September 1943. 1943. Turkey and
Turkey and the the Balkans,
Balkans, brought
brought evidence
evidence of of Soviet
Soviet guilt
guilt directly
directly toto
The
The Communists
Communists were were only
only tootoo alive
alive to to the
the Allied
Allied suspicion
suspicion which which Roosevelt, but
Roosevelt, but got got nowhere.
nowhere. Earle Earle produced
produced photographs
photographs and and
the
the Germans
Germans had had directed
directed towards
towards them. them. So So they
they too too setset about
about affidavits from
affidavits from officials
officials of of the
the Bulgarian
Bulgarian and and Rumanian
Rumanian Red Red Cross
Cross
organising
organising an an 'investigation'.
'investigation'. Once Once againagain the the bodies
bodies were were dugdug up,up, who had
who had visited
visited Katyn,
Katyn, andand who
who had had testified
testified that
that there
there was
was no
no doubt
doubt
filmed
filmed andand photographed
photographed and and probed
probed by by scientists.
scientists. But But the the Soviet
Soviet
that the
that the Soviets
Soviets were were responsible.
responsible. The The President's
President's response
response was
was that
that
team
team was
was composed
composed entirely
entirely of· of Soviets!
Soviets! The The scientists
scientists did did not
not even
even
it was
it was "entirely
"entirely German German propaganda
propaganda and and aa German
German plot."
plot." Earle
Earle
do their
do their own
own first-hand
first-hand investigation
investigation of of the
the site;
site; their
their judgements
judgements threatened to
threatened to make
make public
public hishis findings,
findings, butbut was
was rapidly
rapidly posted
posted toto the
the
were remote island
island of of Samoa
Samoa in in the
the South
South Pacific.
Pacific.
were based
based on on 'evidence'
'evidence* produced
produced for for them
them by by an an un-named
un-named group group remote
working on the graves. graves. The Soviets managed to produce newspapers The two US Army officers who had been taken to Katyn by the
and other documents dating from 1941, which they said they found Germans were
Germans were both both convinced
convinced of of Soviet
Soviet guilt.
guilt. The
The senior
senior of
of these
these
on the bodies. An old peasant who lived nearby, whom the Inter- Inter officers, Col.
officers, Col. JohnJohn H. H. van
van Vliet,
Vliet, waswas released
released from
from aa German
German PoW PoW
national Commission had interviewed, had suddenly become deaf. camp in April 1945. In In Washington
Washington on 22 May, he handed a written
When Allied
When Allied journalists
journalists in in Moscow
Moscow asked asked why why the the bodies
bodies were were clad
clad report to Major General Clayton Bissell, Assistant Chief-of-Staff in
in
in winter
winter greatcoats,
greatcoats, when when thethe Soviets
Soviets were were alleging
alleging theythey hadhad been
been charge of Army Intelligence. It was suppressed and kept secret, and
killed
killed by
by thethe Germans
Germans in in late
late summer,
summer, the the Soviets
Soviets gavegave thethe absurd
absurd van Vliet was given a written order not to discuss it. After the war,
response
response that
that itit must
must havehave been
been aa cold
cold summer
summer in in 1941!
1941! as official attitudes towards the USSR changed, rumours of the
In
In fact, everything pointed to Soviet guilt. Winston Churchill suppressed report started to gain currency. Finally the Army
wrote long afterwards that he he had believed from the beginning beginning that that searched, but it had "disappeared". In 1950, van Vliet prepared a
the Soviets were guilty. But while the USSR was an ally of Britain second report
second report from from memory.
memory.
and
and America,
America, both both countries
countries stooped
stooped to to the
the lowest
lowest levels
levels toto cover
cover Questioned a~ at length by the 1952 investigation committee,
up the
up the embarrassing
embarrassing truth. truth. General Bissell said he thought the original report had been sent to
In fact, the
the Americans had had known of the Katyn massacre massacre long long an official of the Department of State, but that official denied
before the
before the Germans
Germans had had exposed
exposed it. it. The
The US US Embassy
Embassy in in Moscow
Moscow had had receiving it. No transmittal receipt could be produced. (An
compiled
compiled aa dossier
dossier on on the
the subject
subject from from its its extensive intelligence
extensive intelligence independent investigation by the Army's inspector general in in 1950
and
and surveillance
surveillance studies
studies of of the
the KGB.
KGB. The The Embassy
Embassy had had sent
sent thethe concluded that the report had never left Army Intelligence.) The
report to
report to Washington
Washington early early inin 1942
1942 -— aa year before the
year before the Germans
Germans conclusion of the House of Representatives committee was
took Katyn.
took Katyn. TheThe report
report hadhad been
been suppressed.
suppressed. unequivocal: the van Vliet report "was either removed or purposely
When the
When the Germans
Germans approached
approached the the International
International Red Red Cross
Cross to to lay
lay destroyed by Army Intelligence." According to the testimony of
on an
on an independent
independent investigation,
investigation, Churchill
Churchill promised
promised Stalin that he
Stalin that he officers who were stationed in in Army Intelligence during the war,
would "vigorously
would "vigorously opposeoppose it." it." Roosevelt
Roosevelt sent sent aa secret message to
secret message to they
they hadhad had had to to contend
contend with with aa clique
clique of pro-Soviet civilian
of pro-Soviet civilian and
and
Stalin expressing confidence
Stalin expressing confidence that that Churchill
Churchill would would find find aa way way of of military personnel who exerted great efforts to suppress anti-Soviet
prevailing upon the
prevailing upon the Polish
Polish government
government in in London
London "to "to act
act with
with more
more reports.
reports. TopTop ranking
ranking officers
officers who who were
were tootoo critical
critical ofof their
their Soviet
common sense."
common Churchill found
sense." Churchill found aa way.way. Pressure
Pressure was was put
put on on General
General allies
allies were passed over
were passed over when
when it it came
came to promotion.
to promotion.
Sikorski,
Sikorski, thethe Prime
Prime Minister
Minister of of the
the Polish
Polish government-in-exile
government-in-exile and and But
But in in 1946,
1946, with with thethe war war barely
barely over,
over, thethe Katyn
Katyn cover-up
cover-up
the Poles
the Poles agreed
agreed to to withdraw
withdraw their their request
request for for aa Red
Red Cross
Cross inquiry.
inquiry.' operation
operation had had become
become so so much
much part and and parcel of of (manufactured)
(manufactured)
As far
As as can
far as can be be ascertained,
ascertained, only only one one newspaper,
newspaper, the New York
the New York 'public
'public opinion'
opinion' that that the
the Allies
Allies were
were unable
unable to to come
come clean
clean as
as quickly
quickly
Times, mentioned
Times, mentioned the the finding
finding of of the the corpses.
corpses. They They gave gave this
this as
as they
they would
would have have liked.
liked. AndAnd to to make
make matters
matters worse,
worse, the
the Soviets
Soviets
momentous discovery
momentous discovery exactly
exactly two two sentences
sentences near near the
the bottom
bottom of of the
the insisted
insisted on on having
having the the Katyn
Katyn massacre pinned on
massacre pinned on the
the Germans
Germans as as
fourth page, under
fourth page, under aa tinytiny heading
heading whichwhich merely
merely said said "Nazis
"Nazis Accuse
Accuse part ofof the
the Niirnberg
Nurnberg Trials Trials indictment.
indictment. The The Soviets
Soviets having
having taken
taken thethe
Russians." The
Russians." The story
story ran:
ran: position they had on Katyn, it was politically inescapable that they
London. April
London, April 15
15 —- The
The latest
latest German
German attempt
attempt to
to sow
sow discord
discord between
between would
would have
have to to dodo so.
so.
Allies isis aa story
Allies story of
of the
the alleged
alleged finding of
of graves
graves of
of 10,000
10.000 Polish
Polish officers in aa
officers in So it was that the Soviet prosecutor, Col. L. L. N.
N. Smirnoff, called
forest near Smolensk.
forest Smolensk. In
In broadcast
broadcast accounts
accounts the
the Germans
Germans suggested
suggested these
these as a witness Dr. M.
as M. D.D. Markov,
Markov, the Bulgarian member of the
officers. taken
officers,
40. had
taken prisoner during
had been
been shot in the
shot in
during the
the spring
the invasion
spring of
invasion of Poland
of 1940.
1940.
Poland in the winter of 1939—
1939- G
Germans' '
ermans International
International Commission.
Commission. Dr. Dr. Markov
Markov had had already
already been
been
40,
During the
the controversy
controversy over
over the
the Red
Red Cross
Cross inquiry,
inquiry, most
most of
of the
the on
on trial
trial himself,
himself, in in Bulgaria,
Bulgaria, after after that
that country
country was was invaded
invaded and and
During seized
papers were
papers were obliged
obliged toto make
make some
some mention
mention ofof the
the affair,
affair, although
although seized by by the the Soviets
Soviets in in 1944.
1944. AfterAfter Markov
Markov had had confessed
confessed on on
none went
went into
into details
details and
and most
most were
were at
at pains
pains to
to portray
portray the
the massacre
massacre Bulgarian
Bulgarian Radio Radio that that he
he had
had been forced to
been forced to take
take part
part in
in the
the Katyn
Katyn
none
allegation as
as aa propaganda
propaganda trick
trick ofof Goebbels'.
Goebbels'. Only
Only the Chicago
the Chicago inquiry
inquiry and and that that allall the
the results
results were false, he
were false, he was
was acquitted
acquitted by by the
the
allegation 'People's Court'.
Tribune·spoke
Tribune plainly about
spoke plainly about the
the Bolsheviks'
Bolsheviks' capacity
capacity toto commit
commit 'People's Court'. .
such a crime: When
When he gave
gave evidence at Niirnberg,
at Nurnberg, he again repeated that he had
such a crime:
As the
the Bolsheviks
Bolsheviks have
have murdered
murdered millions
millions of
of their
their own
own people,
people. including
including been
been pressurised
pressurised into into taking
taking part part inin the
the Katyn
Katyn Commission.
Commission, Col. Col.
As
many hundreds
many hundreds of
of revolutionary
revolutionary comrades,
comrades. there
there is
is no
no inherent
inherent reason
reason to
to Smirnoff
Smirnoff extracted
extracted most most of of Markov's
Markov's testimony
testimony by by putting
putting leading
leading
believe that
believe that the
the man
man who
who ordered
ordered all
all these
these executions
executions would
would hesitate
hesitate on
on questions; to such an extent that Lord Justice Justice Lawrence had to
humanitarian grounds
humanitarian grounds to kill aa relatively
to kill relatively small
small number
number of Polish
Polish leaders.
leaders. intervene: "I "I don't
don't think it is proper for for you to put leading
Syndicated columnists turned intellectual somersaults in
Syndicated in an
an effort questions to him." him. "
Thompson claimed it was a
to explain away the affair. Dorothy Thompson The Soviets
The Soviets also also. produced a certain Boris Basilevsky, who was
German fabrication.
German fabrication. Identification
Identification of
of the
the corpses
corpses after
after three years deputy mayor of Smolensk
deputy Smolensk during during the German occupation. In In
would be
would be impossible, she
she said.
said. Trees
Trees would not grow
grow inin such clay eVidence, he stated, rather
evidence, rather mechanically, as if reading the answers,
soil, she asserted; been transplanted.
asserted; they must have been transplanted. As to to a Red that the Katyn
that Katyn Wood Wood was was not the fenced-off
fenced-off KGB KGB execution area
60
60
which the
which the Germans
Germans had
had maintained
maintained it
it to
to be.
be. He
He claimed
claimed that
that there
there Prof. Naville
Prof. Naville was completely exonerated
exonerateq by the Swiss
Swiss government.
had been a Yoang
had Young Communist
Communist camp
camp there
there before the war.
war. This
This may A memorial to
A to the Polish
Polish officers murdered at
at Katyn
Katyn was
was finally
finally
well have been true, but Katyn
well Katyn was
was a whole
whole series of woods
woods and in Hounslow,
unveiled in Hounslow, London, in in September
September 1976. The
The Church
Church of
an extensive
covered quite an extensive area. It was quite feasible
area. It feasible that someone England refused to
England to allow the memorial to to be
be put up inin a church
at one end would not know what was secretly going
at going on at
at the other. cemetery in in Chelsea. The
The British Government refused to allow a
Two other
Two other witnesses
witnesses were
were called
called who
who claimed
claimed to
to have
have seen
seen Polish
Polish military guard to appear at the ceremony.
prisoners working on the roads in in the general
general area
area during
during September
September There is also a small Katyn
There Katyn memorial in Stockholm.
Stockhol,m.
1941, after the Germans had occupied the region.
1941, An enormous SovietSoviet 'memorial'
'memorial' atat Khatyn
Khatyn (hundreds
(hundreds of miles
The German officer, Col. Ahrens, named in the Soviet
The Soviet report as
as from the original Katyn) is completely bogus. President Nixon
from Nixon paid
paid
having been in in charge of the massacre, volunteered to testify. For For a homage to itit in
in a 1974 visit, but it is a monument simply to 'war 'war
barrag~ of Soviet
week he stood up to a barrage Soviet questions and abuse. When
When further elaboration.
atrocities', without further
itit was
was proved beyond doubt that he was not present at at the alleged
time of the alleged German massacre, and was not even commander
of the unit alleged to have been involved, the Soviets suddenly APPENDIXB
APPENDIX B
decided that it was his predecessor, Col. Bedenk, who was responsible.
When Bedenk was produced by the German defence, the Soviets
When BOMBING OF
BOMBING OF CIVILIANS
CIVILIANS
dropped the case. One of the most widespread myths about the bombing campaigns
Dr. Hans
Later, Dr. Hans Laternser, counsel for Staff
for the German General Staff World War
of the Second World War is
is that the Germans started the bombing of
and High Command, asked: "Who is to be made responsible for
and for the In fact it was the Royal Air Force which deliberately started
cities. In
Katyn case?" To which Lawrence retorted in in typically judicial this form of aerial warfare, and the Luftwaffe's blitzkrieg was only
manner: "I do not propose to answer questions of that sort." their reply to it.
Katyn never appeared in in the final at Niirnberg. It
final verdicts at It was
was In discussing the bombing of cities, one must leave aside the
In
just quietly forgotten. bombardment of cities, which is is totally different. A
A city is
As for Dr.
Dr. Markov, nothing more has been heard of him. However, bombarded, either from the air air or by artillery, in
in support of
he was referred to in
he in passing during a Swiss governmental investigation approaching troops, whereas a place is bombed for for no other reason
into the participation of the Swiss forensic expert, Prof. Naville, in in than to destroy as many buildings and kill as many people as
the German International Commission. The investigation was possible. The Nazis were put on trial for allegedly deliberately killing
demanded by a Communist member of the Swiss legislature. Prof. Jewish civilians. Yet the British were not put on trial for
for deliberately
Naville co-operated fully with the Swiss authorities and made a murdering German civilians during aerial bombing raids on civilian
lengthy statement wherein he stated that all the participants, targets, such as Dresden. .
including Dr. Markov and himself, had had the widest possible During the war approximately
approximat.ely 537,000 German civilians were
freedom to conduct their scientific investigation at Katyn. Although killed by Allied bombing. In an estimated 60,000 civilians
In Britain, an
Prof. Naville was an ardent anti-Nazi, he had received the fullest G.erman bombing. Sixty-one German cities, with a
were killed by German
co-operation from the Germans. Nor was the Katyn investigation total population of 25 million, were totally destroyed. In Britain,
conducted to provide German propaganda, said Naville, it was large-scale devastation was limited to the central parts of London,
conducted to
conducted to serve the
the interests
interests of Truth
Truth and the
the massacred
massacred Poles.
Poles. Coventry and Plymouth.

~. ..'"
'

Victims of Allied Bombing: Allied propaganda used such scenes as fake concentration camp photos.
61
61
Five pyres were burning simultaneously as these photographs were taken.
taken. Scattered across
across the square can be seen
seen the heaps of ashes waiting
be transported to mass graves.
to be

The British decision to provoke these tit-for-tat murders, described fighting and
and destroying Communism than massacring British civilians.
by military expert and historian Capt. B. H. Liddell Hart as "the The Germans did did conduct reprisal raids on on British historic cities,
most uncivilised method of warfare the world has known since the Coventry andand Plymouth, as retaliation for for the RAF incendiary
Mongol invasions" was taken in in secret. Mr.
Mr. J. M. Spaight, a former attacks onon Rostock, Lubeck and Cologne in
Liibeck and in the spring of 1942. But
Principal Secretary at the Air Ministry writes: apart from these isolated attacks, there was little strategic bombing
apart
Because we were doubtful about the psychological effect of propagandist of Britain until the arrival of the first robot bombs and rocket
distortion of the truth that it was we who started the strategic bombing
offensive. we have shrunk from giving our great decision of May 11th.
offensive, 11th, 1940
bombs — - the infamous doodlebugs -— in 1944.
the publicity it deserved.
deserved. That,
That. surely,
surely. was a mistake. ItIt was a splendid Although the British had had originally envisaged destroying the
decision.
decision. enemy's industrial power through attacks on specific targets, it it was
was
That night, eighteen Whitley bombers attacked railway stations in
That soon found that these were difficult, or or impossible, to hit at
at night.
western Germany. On the 15th, 99 planes were despatched to bomb It was an easy progression to move from accidental bombing of
It was
the Ruhr. More raids were made against Hamburg, Bremen, the Ruhr civilian targets to deliberate civilian bombing.
area again and Frankfurt. In
area In June, Bomber Command was preparing In September 1943 bomber captains were told to attack any
In
to use a special incendiary pellet to burn German crops and forests. target in a built-up area if they could not find the target specified.
Throughout June, the Germans refrained from responding in
Throughout in like When Mannheim was attacked in December 1943, the orders were to
When Mannheim
manner. Finally, they reacted to stop the raids, by bombing British concentrate "on
concentrate "on thethe centre
centre of
of the
the town."
town." Prime
Prime Minister
Minister Winston
Winston
airfields, to prevent the RAF taking off. But to Churchill, Churchill, the Churchill was a strong proponent of bombing people as people. In In
moving force behind the new policy, this was not enough. The The July 1941, according to the RAF official historians, he was an
Germans must be provoked into bombing cities, so that the British "enthusiast ....
"enthusiast . . for the mass bombardment of German towns" and
people would really hate the enemy who, up until then, had appeared in August "repeatedly" urged it. In
in In January
January 1941, when oil
rather remote. On 25 August, 81 bombers were despatched despatched in the installations were named as the principal target, he he "regretted that
first It was not until 77 September,
first of a series of night raids on Berlin. It September, oil plants were for for the most part removed from from the centres of
first British attack, that
three months after the first that the Luftwaffe replied population. "
population."
in kind, with an attack on London. AA few
in kind, the Germans
few weeks later, the By the summer of 1941, British bombing was, in in effect, indis
indis-
took the initiative and proposed a bombing truce, although the criminate. Only one-third of all aircraft were recorded as having
But
Luftwaffe still had an enormous advantage in bombing strength. But dropped their bombs within five
dropped five miles of their target. ThisThis was
the British
the British wanted
wanted no such
such truce.
truce. Heavier
Heavier bombers
bombers for
for the
the RAF were
were illustrated on 1 October 1941, when with the specified objectives
already under production, and the the blitz against Germany
Germany was Stuttgart, planes of Bomber Command
being Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, Command were
up. The
stepped up. The German
German raids
raids against
against Britain
Britain dwindled
dwindled in
in the
the spring reported over
reported over 27
27 other German
German cities.
cities.
1941, and all
of 1941, all but ceased
ceased as
as the
the Luftwaffe was shifted towards
towards the
the In July,
In July, bombers were ordered to to make "heavy,
"heavy, concentrated
concentrated
Eastern front;
Eastern front; the
the Germans,
Germans, itit seemed were
were more interested in and continuous area area attacks
attacks on large
large working class
class and
and industrial
62
62
 areas."
areas." Sir Sir Archibald
Archibald Sinclair,
Sinclair, the
the Minister
Minister for for Air,
Air, expressed
expressed himself "targets of
himself "targets of opportunity".
opportunity". They They opened
opened fire fire on the ~asses
on the masses o~ of pe~ple
people
as bel
as 'ng I'n "complete agreement" with anoth.er
being in "complete agreement" with another MP who had urged MP. who had urged jamming
jamming the
the roads
roads out
out of
of Dresden
Dresden and
and almost
almost anyt~1Og
anything els~
else insight.
10 sIght.
"the bombing
"the bombing of of working-class
working-class areas
areas .... . . slaY10g
slaying 10 h e n~me
in tthe name o. off th
the The rlriver
e The
' ver bank, already pI'led piled wI'th
with corpses, to whIch which SUrvIVOrs.
survivors had
Lord." Foreign Secretary
Lord." Anthony Eden suggeste~
Secretary Anthony suggested atta~k1Og
attacking mamly
mainly alsoalso fled
from
fled from
the
from the
famous
the flames,
flames, was
Kreuzkirche
was aa special
choir
special target.
were strafed
'!-
target. A gr?UP
in
group of of chddren
children
Tiergartenstrasse.
lightly-defended towns under 150,000 populatIOn
lightly-defended towns under 150,000 population in order to British 10 order to from the famous Kreuzkirche choir were strafed 10 Tiergartenstrasse.
greater psychological effects..
effects. British PoWsPoWs, who had been released released fromfrom their burning camps, camps, werewere
produce greater
Bomber Command rose to its new vocatIOn, vocation, mass exterm1OatlOn
. .
extermination also
'
also machine-gunned.
machine-gunned. One plane
One plane flew
flew so so Ilow
ow 10
.in,Its ff ts tto strafe
its eefforts
or
t f
0 s ra e
from
from the the sky, withwith aa series of giant attacks attacks usi!,!g
using newnew incendiary the survivors that it collided with aa wagon and exploded.
techniques. The The ancient and and historic city of Lubeck Liibeck was chosen; Despite the
Despite the daylight
daylight conditions,
conditions, one Bombardment G~ouP
one Bombardment Group lost lost i~
its
although
although it it was
was "a
"a relatively
relatively unimportant
unimportant place, place, itit was
was oneone of
of the way and
the way and delivered
delivered quite
quite aa heavy
heavy attack
attack on on Prague
Prague by by mIstake.
mistake. ThIs This
most
most inflammable
inflammable parts parts of Germany" wrote wrote the officialofficial RAF was was aa particular
particular blowblow forfor the
the navigator
navigator of of one
one plane,
plane, whowho hadhad bee~
been
historians. A large area of the city was was burnt to the ground on the born
born and
and bred
bred in
in the
the city
city and
and had
had fled
fled to
to America
America to
to escape
escape the
the Nazi
NazI
night of 28 28 March, including the the cathedral and and numerous other other invasion.
invasion.
historic
historic buildings. The place place went up like aa tinder-box, on account AA simultaneous
simultaneous attack attack on on nearby
nearby Chemnitz
Chemnitz was was even
even lessless
of
of the
the old,
old, narrow
narrow streets
streets and
and the
the heavy
heavy timbering.
timbering. successful. Most of the bombs were dropped on Hof and Sonnenberg
Lubeck's twin-town of Rostock met the same fate fate aa few
few weeks by by mistake.
mistake. Several
Several planes
planes attacked
attacked Cheb, Cheb, in in Czechoslovakia,
Czechoslovakia, and and
later. Like Liibeck Liibeck, according
according to the the official historians,
historians, Rostock Plauen Plauen and and Magdeburg.
Magdeburg.
"was inflammable because it contained many mediaeval buildings That night, the British air-crews, air-crews, who had only had six hours'
and
and again, like Liibeck, it was was only lightly defended." In In aa serie~ sleep after
series of sleep after thethe Dresden
Dresden attack,
attack, werewere given
given instructions
instructions for for another
another
four
four night attacks, 60 per per cent of the city was was destroyed by fIre. fire. Chemnitz raid. Thus No.1 No. 1 Group crews were informed:
There was so little defence of the towns that bombers flew flew as low Tonight your target will will be Chemnitz. We are are going there to attack the
as 2000 feet.
as 2000 feet.
refugees who are gathering there, especially after last night's attack on Dresden.
On 30 May, the first first thousand-bomber raid was despatched No. 3 Group
No.3 Group crews
crews were
were briefed:
briefed:
against
against Cologne.
Cologne. Again, aa giant fire-storm
fire-storm was created which could You are
You are going
going there
there tonight
tonight to to finish
finish off
off any
any refugees
refugees whowho maymay have
have
escaped from Dresden.
* be seen for for 150 miles. A A whole square mile of the city centre was escaped from Dresden.
burnt
burnt to to the
the g round.'
ground. 730,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Chemnitz that night,
Throughout 1943, the destruction campaign was stepped up. but with only minor damage compared to the Dresden holocaust. On
Attacks were aimed at the cities of the Ruhr river area: Diisseldorf, their way back, the RAF flyers could see the flames of Dresden still
* Duisburg and also
Essen, Duisburg again. With the exception of the ablaze. In fact,
also Cologne again. fact, the city burned for for seven days and eight nights,
Krupp works at Essen, these attacks were aimed directly at the according to the diary of a British prisoner of war there.
centre of the town because it would bfirn burn more easily. The For days after the Dresden attack, the city was obscured by a pall
destruction of factories, according to Air Marshal Harris, "could b~ be of smoke and soot. A A steady shower of wet and sooty ash descended
regarded as a bonus." on the surrounding countryside. British PoWs at Stalag IVB, twenty-
In the month of July, Hamburg was bombed solidly for four days; five miles away, were showered with particles of smouldering
the Americans by day and the British by night. Techniques had so clothing and charred paper for three days.
progressed that 400 planes in 15 minutes could drop as many bombs Relief convoys of supplies were immediately despatched to the
as
as 1000 planes had dropped on Cologne in an hour. To make things city from the entire province. Incredible scenes of carnage awaited
worse, Hamburg was in in the grip of an extraordinary heat wave which them.
raised even night temperatures above 90 degrees. As a result, the Two trains
Two trains full of evacuee children had received received direct hits. Their
incendiary bombs raised a giant fire typhoon which destroyed ten bodies were piled up in heaps in the station forecourt. Six hundred
square miles of the most densely-populated section of the city. More refugees sheltering in the vaulted basement of the station had been
than 48,000 inhabitants were killed; three-fifths being female. killed: one hundred burnt to death by incendiary bombs and the rest
Berlin received
received the same treatment from November 1943 into suffocated by fumes.
1944. In In the spring of 1944 the attacks waned, as the bombers were Out of Dresden's nineteen major hospitals, sixteen had been
put to use supporting the Allied invasion of Normandy. However, damaged and three totally destroyed. At the Vitzthum High High School,
here too their accuracy left something to be desired. Allied bombers which was being used as an
here an emergency hospital, only 200 of the 500
reduced the centre of Caen to rubble, with heavy civilian casualties, patients had been evacuated in in time. The rest had perished in in their
leaving the few German soldiers in the citadel unharmed. Later Le beds. At the Johannstadt maternity hospital, 200 people had also also
Havre was destroyed, long after the Germans had withdrawn. After been killed, but they were so
Havre so horribly mutilated that only 138 could
the RAF announced the bombing of a petrol tank in in a Dutch village, be be identified.
identified.
it was discovered that the petrol tank had actually been a water For several days after the attack, the streets remained strewn with
tower and the German Germari soldiers, Dutch orphans. Later in in the war, the corpses. The first priority was was to dig dig out the cellars where people
US Air Force was to bomb Basle, Zurich and Schaffhausen (twice) -— had taken shelter. Some of these people were still alive. But when
all in
all in neutral
neutral Switzerland. cellar was
one cellar was opened up, the Roumanian soldiers doing the digging
But the most destructive example of this "terror bombing", as refused to go in. in. Eventually an official marched down the steps and
the RAF historians described it, was yet to come. In In February 1944 found the bottom steps very slippery. The cellar floor was was covered
it was
it was decided to bomb Dresden, in eastern Germany, a beautiful with an an eleven or or twelve inch deep liquid mixture of blood, flesh flesh
baroque city whose normal population of half a million had been and bone. A A small high-explosive bomb had penetrated four floors
swollen by hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing from the of the building and exploded in the basement. The official ordered
Soviet advance, now only 70 miles to the east. The city was that the basement should be be covered in in chlorinated lime, and and left to
undefended. Sir Sir Robert Saundby, deputy commander of Bomber dry out. An estimated 200 people had died there.
CommandJ could not believe the order to bomb when it came
Command, Rescue workers also found dozens of people dead in in emergency
through. He He was so so disturbed by it that he queried it with the Air water tanks that had been constructed in in the main city squares.
Ministry. His His message was forwarded to Churchill in Yalta. Anxious People had climbed into the water to extinguish burning clothes, but
to impress the Soviets, Churchill replied that Dresden should be in in the panic could not climb out again. All had drowned.
bombed at the first opportunity. Lindenau Platz was scattered with corpses. Hundreds of naked
The RAF struck on the night of 13 February, with a carefully corpses, their clothes torn off, were sprawled around a tram shelter.
The
prepared plan which envisaged the raising of a gigantic fire-storm At Seidnitzer Platz, 200 people were sitting around, just as they had
such as the one which engulfed Hamburg by chance. The The target been doing on the night of the raid. But this time they were all all quite
area, which was the centre of the city, was first marked out by dead. dead.
indicator bombs. The The first indicator was dropped on the largest Animals had escaped from the city's zoo and indoor circus.
hospital complex in Saxony Saxony — - from a height of less than 800 feet. Llamas, lions and horses roamed the streets. Vultures Vultures were feeding
This was followed by a bombing attack which carpeted the area off
This off the
the bodies
bodies of of dead
dead circus
circus horses
horses on on the
the river
river bank.
bank.
and left
and left the city in flames.
flames. The
The second attack, chiefly with thermite Many of the victims were so shrivelled and charred that they had
Many had
incendiary bombs, was set for for three hours later, so that the fire- fire literally prised off the asphalt, and then levered
to be literally levered apart. Many Many of
fighters who would arrive from other cities to fight fight the blaze, would the corpses had shrivelled to to less
less than
than half their normal size. These These
themselves become victims. There There was no opposition at all; all; no kind
kind of remains had to be shovelled into paper sacks, gathered gathered fromfrom
German fighterfighter planes and no anti-aircraft guns. guns. The The city was a aa nearby cement cement works.
'sitting duck'. The
'sitting The fire-storm
fire-storm could be seen from from 200 miles away. The task of identifying, counting and burying victims of a
The
Next day
Next 1350 USAAF
day 1350 USAAF FlyingFlying Fortresses
Fortresses attacked the city city inin holocaust of this scale remained remained a dauntingdaunting one. AA special special bureau
daylight, even though
daylight, though the flames
flames were
were still
still burning.
burning. Accompanying was set up up to to try
try toto keep
keep track.
track. But
But eventually
eventually only estimates
estimates of the the
fighter planes
fighter instructions to
planes had instructions to drop
drop to to roof-top
roof-top levellevel and strafe number of dead dead could be be made, for for identification was was slowing down down
63
63
 bu~al,
burial, ·~th. the co~equent
with the consequent danger
danger ofof disease.
disease. Bodies
Bodies were
were stacked
stacked
up 10
up in .ptles
piles In
in the
the cIty
city streets
streets and
and on
on the
the railway lines to be be taken
taken
away 10
away inhorse-drawn carts and
horse-d~awn carts and buried
buried inin mass
mass graves
graves outside
outside the
thecity
city.
But the
But the task
task was soso great
great that
that police
police lorries had
hadto be called in
to be in from
from
far away as
as far: as Berlin to cope. Weeks passed,
passed, and
and still
still the
the task
task was
unfinished. The
. unfimshed. The stench of r~tting
stench of rotting flesh
flesh pervaded
pervaded the
the town.
town. Unusually
Unusually
scurrying about amongst the
large rats were seen scurrymg the ruins
ruins, their coats
streaked ·with
with q uick-lime.'
quick-lime.
Eventually, the the authorities had to startstart cremating bodies in in the
the
streets. The area area around the Atlmarkt was cordoned off and and vast
funeral pyres
funeral pyres were
were made,
made, using
using girders and and bricks
bricks from
from wrecked
wrecked
buildings as aa hearth. 9000 bodies were disposed of in in this
thisway.
way.
Seven or or eight large buckets
buckets of wedding rings, mostly mostly gold, had
been taken from from the
the bodies, to assist in in identification. The ringsrings,
worth nearly aa million pounds,
worth pounds, were taken
taken by thethe Red
Red Army
Army as wa; war
loot when they invaded invaded Dresden
Dresden on 88 May. The 300 clerks clerks who
worked in the identification bureau were evicted from from their offices
as the Soviets took over. During an interview with the bureau
as
director, the Soviet commander insisted that the Allied air forces forces
could not possibly
could possibly be
be so
so effective aa weapon
weapon of war, refused
refused to accept
accept
director's estimate of 135,000 dead,
the director's dead, and calmly struck off the
first digit.
The raidraid on Dresden has gone down in our history books as as the
deadliest ever bombing raid. raid. (According to official statistics, the fire- fire-
bombing of Tokyo killed 84,000 and the atomic bomb dropped on
Hiro-Shima, 71,000.)
Possibly it was the I,Iheer sheer magnitude of the massacre which
inhibited the Allies from from prosecuting the Nazis for for organising the
blitz on London: the double-standard involved would have been just just
too obvious. But not it seems to the Soviets, who demanded at
Niirnberg that Goring be charged with such aa crime. They argued: argued:
"The German attacks had been the work of Nazi war criminals, who
had rained death on innocent workers and their wives and children.
The Allied attacks, on the other hand, had been carried out by the
avenging forces of democracy in order to seek out the Fascist beasts
in their lairs and stamp out imperialism and Nazism."
In an ironic sequel to this bloody tale, some years ago it was
reported that a member of the Zionist 62 Group, Gerry Gable, had
broken into the home of the author of a book about Dresden, David
Irving, in in order to determine whether or not he was a "secret Nazi".
(Many of the above references are taken from this detailed book
The Destruction of Dresden, published by William Kimber in 1963
in London.) Gerry Gable now works as a "researcher" on London
Weekend Television's London Programme.
Cossacks shown standing on their horses with the German army near
KislolJodsk
Kislovodsk in
in the
the Caucasus.
Caucasus.
APPENDIXC
APPENDIX C
'processed' and sentenced to years of hard labour in Siberian concen
concen-
THE
THE 'REPATRIATIONS'
'REPATRIATIONS' tration camps, regardless of whether they had fought for or been
for or
At the end of the Second World
World War the Allies suddenly discovered taken prisoner by the Germans. But Sir Geoffrey Wilson's sense of
that many of their 'German' prisoners of war were in in fact nothing of awareness of and sympathy for any sense of patriotism and
the sort. Many of them were Cossacks, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, nationalism can be ,gauged
gauged by the fact that since 1971 he has been
Latvians, Estonians and Russians. After the Nazi invasion of the Chairman of the traitorous Race Relations Board, which was was set up
Soviet Union, many of these men had willingly donned German with the prime objective of destroying these fine sentiments.
uniforms with the objective of once and for all ridding their country The Americans too held non-German prisoners-of-war at at Fort Dix
of the Communist dictators. Many too had been drafted by the (New Jersey), Winchester (Virginia) and Rupert (Idaho). In In
German occupation forces, first of all all into labour batallions, then November 1944, 10,000 men from the Idaho camp were moved to
into para-military platoons and finally into fully-fledged Wehrmacht San Francisco and put on board the SS Ural, which sailed for
units.
units. Vladivostock. Out of the 10,000, 70 showed an unwillingness to
The Allies also found that many of the displaced persons who had go, and three attempted suicide. In
go, In the end, the three were also
also put
fallen under their control were also originally from the Soviet on the Ural after receiving medical treatment.
Empire. Some of these were refugees from the Red Army advance In February 1945, Churchill and Roosevelt met Stalin at
In
and others were the wives and children of Cossacks serving with the
and Yalta. An agreement was reached amongst the three that liberated
Yalta.
German forces. It
German was the
It was the custom
custom ofof the
the Cossacks
Cossacks toto have
have their
their Soviet citizens would be repatriated, although this was kept secret
families tagging along wherever they were posted. for the next two years. InIn fact it was only in
in 1972 that the official
Moscow in October 1944, Churchill
At a meeting in Moscow Churchill and Eden declassified.· In
records became declassified.- In return for the Anglo-American
Stalin's demand that the Soviet expatriates should
readily agreed to Stalin's promise, Stalin pledged to hold free elections in 'liberated' Poland
be sent back. They
be They were afraid that if they did otherwise, then the as soon as possible. And it was on this basis that future repatriations
Soviets might be reluctant to hand back British PoWs whom they
Soviets were carried out: if they were not then Poland would have no
had liberated from internment camps in in eastern Germany. democracy. Hindsight tells us, of course, that Stalin no more
Sure enough, on 31 31 October, 10,000 prisoners left British ports intended free in Poland than did Hitler,
free elections in Hitler, but Churchill and
for Murmansk
for Murmansk in in northern Russia. This
This first
first batch
batch consisted ofof men Roosevelt were impressed with his sincerity. Both were by this time
who had no violent objection to returning. Only Only twelve men showed becoming rather senile.
any resistance and itit was a simple matter to put them on the ships On 15
On 15 February,
February, three British ships —- Duchess of Richmond,
by force.
force. When
When they reached Murmansk,
Murmansk, an an American diplomat Moreton
More ton Bay and Highland Princess —-left for Odessa with
left Liverpool for
reported, they were marched off under a heavily armed escort. Sir Sir 7000 Soviet
a total of 7000 Soviet prisoners. Throughout
Throughout the journey, the
Wilson, who looked
Geoffrey Wilson, looked after Foreign
Foreign Office relations with the jumping into the sea
prisoners were jumping sea any time they came near land;
land; at
USSR, pointed out that the lack
USSR, lack of any welcome for the men was Gibraltar and
Gibraltar and at
at the
thp. Dardanelles.
Dardanelles.
in Russia. "Nor
quite usual in "Nor is
is the armed guard
guard in
in the least
least surprising," By now it was obvious that there was
By was going to
to be serious
serious trouble
Wilson presumably did
he added. Wilson did not know
know that
that in
in actual fact
fact the
the in the internment camps
in camps if many of the
the prisoners refused to
to go. An
being marched to
men were being to a nearby campcamp where they would be was set
Anglo-Soviet commission was set up to
to decide
decide on
on which
which of the
64
64
 prisoners were
prisoners were in
in fact
fact Soviet
Soviet citizens,
citizens, and which were not. Those Those
who were
who were judged
judged Soviets
Soviets were sent to a transit
transit camp centred on on a
~all. hotel at Newlands
small Newlands Corner,
Corner, near Guildford, Surrey. Surrey. ByBy
coincidence, door to
cOIncidence, next door to the hotel lived
lived the Strachey
Strachey family,
family, whose
son John
son John Strachey
Strachey was to become MinisterMinister of War War in 1950. John
John
Strachey, both a former
Strachey, former communist and and a former
former fascist, held no no
sympathy for the the men.
men. He declared that they were quislings who who
deserved everything that was coming to them.
The Russians had
The had confidence in in the British authorities, who (with(with
the exception of Mr. Mr. Strachey)
Strachey) had always appeared sympathetic,
Qec~use these prisoners too were despatched
because despatched from Hull in
from Hull in early
1945. All,
1945. All, that is, except one
one unfortunate man who hanged himself
quayside warehouse; such was his desperation. The
in a quayside The same thing
thing
happened when another 6000 Russians were repatriated via
Liverpool. One
Liverpool. One man hanged himself at Scarsbrook
Scars brook Camp in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
before they set off forfor Liverpool, and
and another cut his his throat at
at the
port. At the inquests, the press were were 'advised' not to report the
When the ship,
circumstances. When ship, the Almanzora, reached
reached Odessa, there
machine·gun fire as soon as the men had been
were salvoes of machine-gun
disembarked. OneOne of the British interpreters reported that one of the
Soviet guards had told him that two men had
Soviet had immediately been
executed because they "had sold out to the capitalists."
May, trouble again broke out on
In May, on the quayside at Liverpool
when 3000 Russians were were embarking on Empire Pride. 40
on the Empire
prisoners had to be be frog-marched on on board by military policemen.
One of them smashed his china tea-mug and
One and proceeded to to slash his
own throat with the jagged
jagged edges. The Soviet liaison officers insisted
that he
that he be
be put on board, despite his his injuries. A was called to
A doctor was
~titch him up, there and
stitch and then on on the quayside. Again, on on the
Journey,
journey, men leaped overboard, although one one or two were picked up
by Turkish police launches and returned to the Empire Pride. One One of
them then tried to slash his wrists with a razor blade. When he was
unloaded at at Odessa, a single pistol shot was was heard from behind a
warehouse. 31 other prisoners were dragged dragged off the ship by the
Soviets and fifteen minutes later machine-gun fire was was heard from
war~house on
inside the warehouse ~m the quay. Twenty minutes later a covered
lorry drew up. A A Canadian interpreter who later examined the
warehouse reported fresh chips knocked out of the walls, walls. and stains
and blotches everywhere.
After the collapse of the Nazi regime in April 1945, the British
and American authorities now found it easier to repatriate the
Russians direct across the occupation zone boundaries. On 2 June
1945, the Daily Herald reported that 10,000 Russians, mostly ",,::j{,f'':'t

women, were passing through the lines every day. A A pontoon bridge flt:K'l:
III'KT: -It..&~ . . . . . r<r$»*trt*i«>
HumsiAt* ...~p
. . . . .Ut'"-' (i « ^t^iuto*-..r(«,ttnt,t«H»n • ~flt\ with
.............. *rtm*rei, pain
wUb palla
across the Elbe had to be built to carry them. Many others were just
shoved onto east-bound trains without too many formalities.
..,..... h
4f|rr
."""'Jl~
he
.
attrntpt \III
.;.'4.~'
4*»rd««-r Of.
.. lIl",""
db..... . .....
to .......
.. 4 bilftifffJf
*)&«**•<! h.ftwlf ....
bv«»4ti bnr«* rr«ur*ieit
o» Ihih<*.. 1I~lb
hMh l~f
tt»* » heart *t»m#> 1'1'
»* llH>rb-tlM-_

ffif R~,CI".(._
.. .......
t«* . ~h._",
n. .... $n Kuvutt Mr
It -1ib:IlH
time* Iill
~ to held
. . ._ ......
K*-«t . <»<t*%oac»f»
4."
.....
» "
tejr J'tr.p\.
*mlr*d«
Ir*
t'&.p%« K.f'aO"
the h"i~cd
* *»»• ,lb-.
Kenny
flf«H «IW of
Many of the liberated Russian PoWs were undoubtedly a nuisance
for the British and Americans. When they were released they
%tt«*mt»tf<J
.1\ <*wn ,If
..... 1>1 .... <10" <J<* \<<iu\te
...... lb*.. 'Jrjmrfer*
H><111' Ito ,t.....
.......r:1 ..... from 1"""lIu:
f*t»tUnit \III
to ft
Ku>*.ftt •«* .....
....... ,'" PW*

rampaged through villages breaking into houses, looting, raping and
drinking as much alcohol as they could lay their hands on. On one
. occasion 400 of them died after drinking gallons of methyl alcohol
looted from a hijacked train near Nurnberg.
Niirnberg. The American military
health authorities reported that alcohol poisoning was second only
to typhus as a health problem among DPs. At the end of May, so
many refugees were pouring into the Anglo-American zones that
bridges had to be blown up to stem the flow. flow. Within only two
months, more than half the two million Soviet citizens in western
Germany had been repatriated.
In May 1945, 200,000 Croat soldiers plus 500,000 civilians, also
Croatian, were handed over to Tito's army on the Austro-Hungarian
frontier. There is no doubt that tens of thousands of these were
executed, either by rudimentary murder or after a communist-run
show-trial.
show-trial.
But the biggest betrayal was yet to come. In In May 18,000 Cossacks
under the German General von Pannwitz were tricked into being
delivered into Soviet hands. For weeks and weeks they had been
assured
assured that they were not going to be handed over, and so they had
gullibly agreed to being "transferred to another camp." Inexplicably,
500 German soldiers were handed over with the Cossacks. Pannwitz's
execution was announced in Pravda on 17 January 1947. The
ordinary soldiers were sent to Siberia, for for a minimum of ten years'
hard labour. Only one or two of the Germans have ever come back.
A different technique was used for for the transference of 25,000
more Cossacks under General Domanov. First of all the officers were
separated and transported to another camp nearer the border, under
the ruse of "attending a conference." It It was here that they were told
of their fate.
fate. There were many suicides. And when the time came
to load up the lorries to take them to the frontier, frontier, there were wild
scenes. The officers had to be practically
practically beaten senseless by the
guards before they could be put
guards put on board. The British British soldiers
soldiers beat
them with rifle butts, pick-axe
pick-axe handles and even bayonets. Even Even
after the convoy moved off, Cossacks were still still trying to commit
65
65
A rare photograph, taken from the US Army newspaper Stars and
Stripes, of March 6, 1946, showing a Russian who attempteq
attempted suicide
during operations at Plattling.
suicide: one jumped out and over a precipice. At the actual hand- hand
over, another five slashed their throats with razors.
Meanwhile back at Lienz, there was increasing commotion
amongst the families
families and ordinary soldiers. They had been expecting
the officers to return that night. When no one returned, they finally
finally
realised the truth; that they had been handed over to the communists
and that they too were destined for for the same fate.
fate. When the day
came, the Cossacks held a massive and continuous open-air religious
service. Again they had to be physically man-handled onto the
lorries, the reluctant ones being encouraged with blows from from
truncheons and starting-handles. The crowd contained 4000 women
and 2500 children, but they too were thrust onto the transport.
Dozens were seriously injured during the loading, and six Cossacks
. were suffocated to death in the panic. On the way to the trains that
would take them into the hands of the Bolsheviks, many committed
suicide. Several, including mothers with babies, threw themselves
into the turbulent waters of the River Drau. Eventually the
Cossacks were loaded into goods wagons with only a bucket of water
to drink and another bucket to use as a lavatory. Thirty people were
put into each van and the doors locked. After a nine-hour journey,
many of the Cossacks were found found dead on arrival, either through
suffocation or through suicide. But even those still alive did not last
very long. Machine-gun,
Machine-gun fire
fire echoed from
from behind a station building
as soon as they were unloaded. The rest were sent to labour camps
for
for ore-education'.
're-education'. Survivors of these camps report that more than
7000 Cossacks died of malnutrition and disease in these camps,
during the first
first year
year alone. It
It has only been with the publication
publication of
The Gulag Archipelago
Archipelago that the true factsfacts about these camps
camps are'
are
beginning to come out.
 On 1717 January 1947, Pravda announced that P.
January 1947, P. N. Krasnov, during Operation Eastwind.
Eastwind. Christopher Mayhew,
Mayhew, then a junior
junior
A
A. G. Shkuro, Sultan
Sultan Klych Girey, S. Krasnov, T. I.
S. N. Krasnov, I. Domanov
Domanov minister in the Foreign Office (but who has recently left the Labour
and Helmut
Helmut von Pannwitz had pleaded pleaded guilty
guilty to "forming White Party and joined
joined the Liberals)
Liberals) replied that there had been none.
Guard detachments" and to "carrying out espionage, diversionary These two blatant lies indicate just
just how much the government heJd
held
and terrorist activities against the Soviet Union." They had been its own policy to be honourable~
honourable. It was because they recognised the
condemned to death and the sentences carried out. Of the six men criminality of the repatriations that the British government tried to
whose execution was publiclypublicly announced only one, Domanov, was cover its own tracks by deceit. Otherwise there might well have been
liable to repatriation under the Yalta Agreement. Von Pannwitz was some awkward questions asked at the contemporaneous NiimbergNumberg
a German through and through. The other four four had not lived in the trials. Strangely Sir Geoffrey Wilson who collaborated in the com-
com
Soviet Union at any time since its creation, and could not therefore pulsorY
pulsory repatriation of Russian PoW's now strongly objects to the
be described as "Soviet citizens". repatriation of non-Europeans who settled in Britain since the war.
As mentioned previously, the Americans too had problems in
implementing their repatriation programme. When they attempted to
iJqplementing
move 154 Russians from from the Fort Dix Camp, to board a ship on New
York's North River, serious rioting broke out. Two American officers APPENDIXD
APPENDIX D
were slightly injured and seven Russians suffered gunshot wounds.
Three others hanged themselves. Eventually seven were adjudged non- JEWISH
JEWISH WAR WAR ATROCITIES
ATROCITIES IN IN PALESTINE
PALESTINE
Soviets and-allowed
and allowed to stay in the USA. The rest were drugged up to Needless to say, the countless war atrocities committed by Jews
the eyeballs and bundled on board a USSR-bound ship. have gone completely unpunished. In one case, the USA has even
The Americans also held 20,000 more probable Soviet citizens in paid Israel for massacring American sailors.
Europe. InIn August 1945 they began to repatriate those held at a It was during early 1944 that the Jews in Palestine turned against
camp at Kempten near Munich. Here again, the guards were obliged the British mandatory government, stabbing her in the back even
to wade into a church service, wielding truncheons, rifle butts and while Britain was still struggling to conquer Nazi Germany in order
bayonets. to rescue European Jewry.
By this time, some of the facts
facts about the brutality were beginning In
In February 1944, one of the Jewish terrorist organisations, the
to come.
come to light. Eventually, the American government was forced Stern Gang, killed a British police inspector and a constable. In
to moderate its policy, so that only prisoners who had actually March, the Jews killed a further further eight British policemen, including
fought
fought for the Nazis would have to be sent back. But'of course, this the Assistant Superintendent in Jerusalem.
was exactly the category of prisoner which had the most to fear On 8 August 1944, the Stern Gang tried, and almost succeeded,
from being repatriated. Early in 1946, the Americans repatriated in assassinating the British High Commissioner in Palestine, Sir
their penultimate batch of internees from from Dachau -— ironically the Harold MacMichae1,
MacMichael, and killed ten British police constables in the
site of a war-time concentration camp. The gruesome events that process. On 1 November, two Jews from Palestine murdered Lord
took place during the operation are more fully detailed in the Moyne, British Resident Minister of State in the Middle East, in in
chapter dealing with Dachau. Despite the intervention of the Pope, Cairo. As the War War in Europe drew to a close, the Irgun -— another
the last batch of 1500 Russians was despatched into Soviet hands Jewish terrorist organisation -— produced the slogan: "VE Day for for
from Plattling, near Dachau. Elaborate precautions did not prevent the British is D Day for for us."
many attempts at suicide, six of them successful. The Jews vastly increased their campaign of murder in 1946;
But it was the British who carried out the final operations in this killing 49 British soldiers and 28 British policemen. Among their
bloody programme. In June 1946 the British cabinet agreed to achievements that year year were the attack on on 25 April on on a military car
copy the Americans in modifying the scope of the forcible park inin Tel Aviv, where they entered soldiers' tents and murdered
repatriations. This left them with about 170 men in in the repatriation them as they slept, and on 22 July, the blowing up of the King
category, at that time interned in Italy. Elaborate plans were drawn
categorY, David Hotel in Jerusalem, with a loss of 81 lives.
up to make sure the handover went smoothly. The transfer from Pisa In
In December they captured and whipped a major of the 2nd
to the transit camp at Rimini was labelled 'Operation Keelhaul'. The Parachute Brigade and three sergeants. One of the sergeants reported
handover of the Soviet citizens was called 'Operation Eastwind' and that the attackers had been hysterical with- with enjoyment throughout
the delivery of the few Croats to Tito's government 'Operation the whipping.
Highjump'. (In later years the descriptive term 'Operation Keelhaul' Throughout 1947, the Jews enthusiastically continued their 'kill
was mistakenly applied to the entire two years of forcible the British' campaign. On 1 March, the Irgun destroyed the Goldsmith
repatriations.) Even in this final operation, no sy-mpathy
sympathy was spared Officers' Club in Jerusalem, killing 13. On 18 April, Jews attacked
for the unfortunate prisoners, many of them being sent to their No. 6161 Field Dressing Station in in Nathanya, killing a sentry and
deaths. When
deaths. When it it was
was discovered that
that nine
nine of
of the
the men
men had
had families blowing up the medical inspection room. On 20 April, a bomb was
in the camp, they were given 24 hours to make up their minds
in thrown at a Red Cross convalescent station cinema. On 22 April, the
whether or not they wanted their wives and children to be sent back Stern Gang attacked the Cairo—Haifa
Cairo-Haifa train, killing five five soldiers.
with them -— an agonising choice. A A specially stripped train had to be On 12 July 1947, possibly the most ghastly atrocity of the Jews'
laid on for the journey, but even so many of the men attempted bloody campaign was perpetrated. Two British sergeants were
suicide. kidnapped by the Stern Gang, and it was not until a fortnight later,
One of the British officers who witnessed the round-ups later on the 31st, that their bodies were discovered hanging from· from
wrote a detailed, but anonymous report on the brutalities involved. eucalyptus trees in in a grove in Nathanya. Their hands had been tied
The report was widely circulated by his superiors, many of whom behind their backs and pieces of shirt had been wrapped around
were disturbed by being ordered to carry out this dirty job. their heads.
their heads. AA notice
notice was
was fastened
fastened to to their
their clothes
clothes which
which read
read "This
"This
Eventually it was put into print, by the American journalist Julius is the sentence of Irgun's High Tribunal." The The area round about was
Epstein, in The Sunday Oklahoman of 21 21 January 1973. After the mined, and as one of the bodies was being cut down it exploded,
publication of a fully documented book on the repatriations, The having been booby-trapped, and severely wounded a British officer.
Last Secret, by Lord Bethell, the author of the anonymous report A few days later the Irgun posted notices in
A a~nouncing that
in Haifa announcing
turned out to be none other than Dennis Hills, the university lecturer the two Britons had been hanged as belonging to "The criminal Nazi-
who was sentenced to death in UgandaUganda in 1975 for daring to criticise British Army of Occupation." A A photograph of the atrocity was
General Amin.
General Amin. taken by an an Associated Press photographer and a radioed .copy copy
But what neither Bethell nor Epstein examined in in their writings appeared on the front page of the Daily Express of 1 August 1947.
was the hypocrisy of the repatriations in in comparison to the Niirnberg publicatiqn_ of this photo was
The publication^ was met with a storm of Jewish
If the Germans could be put on trial and executed for
war trials. If protests, and eventually the photo, and any record of it, was
keeping people in in camps and then sending them to their deaths, why removed from the
removed the Associated
Associated Press
Press archives.
archives.
was it that the British government actually ordered the internment The terror campaign continued unabated. In
The In September, the
of tens of thousands of people and their sending to their deaths? No Irgun killed nine Palestine police in in a bomb attack on Haifa police
one, least all the British
least of all British government, was under the impression HQ. Letter bombs were mailed to prominent British
HQ. British politicians. AA
that the repatriates would come to no harm in the Soviet Soviet Union.
Union. statement in
statement in the
the House
House of of Commons
Commons revealed
revealed that
that since
since the
the end
end ofof
The only Member
The Member of Parliament
Parliament to try to get get to the bottom of War, the Jews
the War, Jews had killed
killed a total of 127 British
British soldiers, and had
the affair atat the time was ·Richard Stokes. He
Richard Stokes. He did
did not get
get very far,
far, wounded aa further
wounded further 331.
331.
due to the fact that every time he asked a question, he was answered
fact that 1948 arrived, and the Jews Jews continued their murder campaign. In In
lie. On 77 June
with a lie. June 1945,
1945, he asked Churchill
Churchill in the House
House of February they killed
February killed 27
27 British soldiers and airmen in in an attack
attaclt on
Commons if there had been any secret parts to the Yalta
Commons Yalta Agreement. a train at Rehoboth, shot two two policemen
policemen in in bed in in the Wallach
Wallach
Churchill told him, incorrectly,
Churchill told incorrectly, that there
there were none. On On 21
21 May
May Hospital, Jerusalem,
Hospital, Jerusalem, and killed another British British policeman
policeman when they
1947, Stokes
1947, Stokes asked
asked how many attempted
attempted suicides
suicides there
there had
had been broke into
broke into the
the Hadassah
Hadassah Clinic
Clinic also
also in
in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem.
66
66
 The Stern Gang posted more letter-bombs, this time to British
diplomats around the World. In In Maya
May a parcel-bomb killed a soldier's
brother in England. An unsuccessful attempt was also made to place
a time-bomb under the seat of Foreign Secretary Aneurin Bevan in
the House of Commons.
the
By the time the British forces were withdrawn from Palestine in
1948, leaving the Jews to grab the Palestinians' land ad lib,
lib, some 150
British soldiers and 70 British policemen had been done to death by
Jewish
Jewish assassins. The Jews' mentality in committing these war-crimes
is chillingly described in Memoirs of an Assassin: Confessions of a
Stem
Stern Gang Killer by 'Avner', published by Anthony Blond, 1959:
For the Lehi (Stern
(Stem Gang) on the other hand, an Englishman would always
be a filthy Goy, who could be killed for this reason alone ...
. . . Later, I saw this
biological hatred appear in the course of operations, as
as in the case of the 18-
year old Sabra who, after having fired a burst of sub-machine gun fire point-
blank into a policeman, instead of running away, lingered for a long time
battering the already cooling body with the butt of his weapon.
. These atrocities were not committed by a gang of hot-heads,
dISowned
disowned .by
by the 'moderate-minded Jewish majority', as modern-
day
day Israelites would have one believe. The British Colonial Office
White Paper of 1946 (Ref: Cmnd. 6873) revealed that the Haganah
and Ben Gurion's Jewish Agency were also party to this extermin-
extermin
ation programme.
While the British government were preparing to surrender the
Levant to tribes of Jewish gangsters, the Jews themselves were re- re
directing their murder programme against the native Palestinians. On
10 April 1948, only a month before the British soldiers were pulled
out, the Irgun and Stern Gang jointly launched a military assault on
the village of Deir Yassin, on the outskirts of Jerusalem itself. The
600 inhabitants were rounded up, and relieved of all their valuables.
600
The Jews then set about systematically murdering the Arabs. On this
occasion, approximately 260 Arabs were butchered. Included in this
total were 25 pregnant women whose bodies were ripped open with
bayonets, 52 mothers with young babies, as well as about 60 other
women and young girls. Children were cut to pieces in 'front
front of their
mothers. Several bodies
bodies were stuffed down wells. Some of of the
'luckier' Arab women were not murdered, but were stripped of their
You Israelites, you should never become so lenient if you kill your enemies.
You shall have no pity on them until we shall have destroyed their so-called
Arab culture, on the ruins of which we shall build our own civilisation.
When this man was invited to speak at a dinner laid on by a
promin~n.t
prominent Jewish organisation in London some years ago, his record
of a~ro~ltIes
atrocities a~d.
and butchery of Britons and Arabs alike was exposed by
patrl~tlC
patriotic British demonstrators. The visit was quickly
knocked on the head. However, Begin is still feted on his travels to
various other parts of the World, notably the Republic of South
Africa.
Probably the most bizarre, and one of the most bloody bloody, Jewish
war-crimes was the massacre of the crew of the USS Lib~rty Liberty, an
an
American spy-ship anchored off the coast of Israel during the 1967
war. The Liberty, a converted freighter, had a defence capability of
two archaic .50 calibre Il)achine-guns.
machine-guns. Her main function was as a
radio surveillance vessel; in fact she was an an exact sister ship of the
USS Pueblo which was to be captured by the North Koreans in
January 1968.
On 8 June 1967 the Liberty was attacked by three Israeli Mirage
jet aircraft. In five or six strafing runs, the aircraft criss-crossed the
ship with cannon fire; a later count showing 821 separate hits. Even
before the Liberty could escape, it was then attacked by three high high-
speed motor torpedo boats. The ship was peppered with more
cannon fire from the torpedo boats, and was finally crippled by two
torpedoes. 34 American crewmen were killed and another 164 were
injured, including the captain.
Shortly afterwards, two Israeli helicopters circled the ship and
tannoyed through a loudspeaker to ask whether the Americans
needed any help. Captain McGonagle hailed back, "Go to Hell, you
bastards!" The Liberty limped away to the West, and seven days
later arrived at Malta. In
In mid-July she was patched up sufficiently to
cross the Atlantic, but was broken up for scrap at Norfolk, Virginia,
shortly afterwards.
The Israelis immediately apologised for the attack, claiming that
they had mistaken the Liberty for an an Egyptian supply ship EIEl Quseir.
Yet the Liberty looked nothing like the Egyptian ship. It was clearly
marked, was flying the US flag, and was in international waters.
A couple of American congressmen made noises about compen-
A compen
sation from the Israeli government, but apart from that that, there was a
deathly silence about the affair from both government ~gencies,
agencies, and
the normally voluble newspaper columnists. The parents of one

Arab bodies after the massacre at Deir Yassin

clothing and herded into open trucks and paraded through the ~he
streets of Jerusalem Jewish Quarter, where they were insulted and
spat upon by the local populace.
Again, modern-day Zionist apologists like to make out that (i) the
inhabitants were warned by loudspeaker to clear out, (ii) the attack
was the work of 'hotheads' and (iii) the Arabs fired first. In
In fact, the
loudspeaker was not working as it had been damaged when the
(stolen) vehicle it was mounted on ran into a ditch. Although the
attack was carried out by the Irgun and Stem
Stern Gangs, the official
Haganah knew perfectly well it was planned. In fact, at one stage,
Haganah
the ~lite Palmach brigade of Haganah joined in the massacre,
the e*lite massacre but
were hastily withdrawn when the political implications of 'their their
participation dawned on their commanders. It It is true that the Arabs
did fire the first shot, but this was a vain effort to ward off an
overwhelming attack by the bloodthirsty Jews. The leader of the
Irgun, which participated in the slaughter at Deir Yassin was
Menachem Begin, who was later to become Israeli Prime Minister.
At a Press Conference in Tel Aviv on 28 October 1956, Begin had U.S.S. Liberty Was Riddled Hulk After Israeli Sneak Attack Killed
this to say about Jews and humanitarianism: 34
34 U.S.
U.S. Seamen-
Seamen —
67
67
 ·aircraft
aircraft and boats. Although the Israelis
Israelis promised a court martiiil
martial bf
seaman who suffered permanent brain damage in the attack set up a those involved in the 'mistake', no such trial has ever taken place.
fund to claim compensation through the World Court at at The Hague, Instead
Instead it has
has been the victims, and those who spoke up on their
but they were visited by a representative of the State Department behalf such as Rarick, who were subjected to harrassment by various
who tried to persuade them to withdraw. government'agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service.
The Hague court rejected the claim, saying that the US US govern·
govern The truth is that the Israelis deliberately attacked the Liberty,
ment should claim direct from Israel. Initially the Israelis refused since the ship was listening in in to Israeli military radio broadcasts.
any liability whatsoever, since they claimed that the Liberty's There was a real prospect of the Americans discovering that Israel
presence in the area area was 'provocative'. When one congressman was not the 'humble David versus the Arab Goliath' which she was
attempted to append a Liberty compensation clause to a US Foreign pretending to ·be. be. In fact the Israelis had planned to seize the Syrian
Aid to Israel
Israel Bill, Washington would not even contemplate it. Golan Heights as part of a strategic expansionist programme. With
Eventually the Israelis did pay ?3m $3m in compensation to the the Americans attempting to steer the Arabs away from the Soviet
?3V2m to the 164 injured. camp, it would have been in their interests to expose the Israeli plan
families of the 34 dead. They later paid $3lhm
But according to Congressman John R. Rarick of Louisiana, the to the World. The attack on the Liberty. Liberty, the murder of 34 Americans,
'compensation' was paid out of extra US US Aid funds pushed through and the maiming of 1t34 164 others, put paid to that,
that.
especially for the purpose. Un·til recently, the only mention of the subject of the USS Liberty
Until
It
It is certainly true that the Israelis never paid a cent in
in compen-
compen atrocity has
has been in conservative American pUblications
publications such as
sation for the physical destruction of the Liberty -— neither did the Herald of Freedom and the weekly Spotlight (300 Independence
US government press for any. When Captain McGonagle received his Avenue, S.E., Washington, DC 20003). However, in the summer of
Congressional Medal of Honour for his efforts on board the Liberty, 1976 the the British men's magazine Penthouse published a two-part
the Israeli lobby in Washington made sure that his citation bore no analysis, and this proved so popular that the author Anthony Pearson
mention of Israel. The citation referred only to attacks by "foreign" followed this this up with a book, Conspiracy of Silence (Quartet,
Londo~.
London, 1978), where the author advanced the further theory that a

HOT OFF THE PRESSESI

PRESSES!
THE SIX MILLION
RECONSIDERED
A distinguished American journalist threads his way
skilfully through the tomes and tombs of Judaica.
This Odyssey through the Jewish psyche is related
with aa candour and wit that only a a professional
word-smith could display. Photo chapters could
easily be aa book by themselves, bringing together
ever-so-telling portraits, astounding newspaper
clippings and startling archive documents for the
first time. You
You simply cannot describe yourself as
"aware" unless you have absorbed this fascinating
book.
book. Read:
Read:

** How "Anti-Semitism" is really anti-semantic ism

anti-semanticism
** How the Talmud preaches mass extermination
of Goys
** How the 'gas-oven' fantasy dates back to
Ancient times
** How 'The
The Mafia' is run by Israelis
** How ·the
-the 'survival business' is a
a multi-million
dollar racket
** How Nurnberg
Niirnberg 'evidence' was 'collated' by
Hollywood movie moguls
** How Marxism is really the Siamese twin of
Judaism and the 'Russian' revolution was
was
really a
a Jewish revolution
"Once you've read this book, you'll never be the
same again" -— Richard Harwood,
University of London
PRICE: £3.50 inc. postage

68
68
 BffiLIOGRAPHY,
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SOURCE NOTES -&
& FURTHER READING

Niimberg
Niirnberg Trials
Since the first edition of this book, several other books have been Recently, doubt has been cast on the famous Diary of Anne Frank.
published, which deal directly or indirectly with this vexed subject. Certainly her father has made plenty of money out of the book,
So perhaps it is now better to list them in some sort of chronological since he was able to sue the playwright, one Otto Frank, for $50,000
order. in stage rights.
The first author to openly criticise the trials was the Brighton The diary of Emmanuel Ringelblum is another dubious journal.
lawyer A. J. P. P. Veale with Advance to Barbarism, which was later The American publishers admitted that they were denied access to
translated into several languages and even serialised in the Dublin the original manuscript in in (Communist) Warsaw. But having got
Sunday Press. Veale followed this up with a book about Allied war away with such chutzpah so so often, there is no end to the stream of
crimes, Crimes Discreetly Veiled (London, 1958).
crimes, . hate churned out by the international paperback houses. Olga
The American (ex-) Rear Admiral Dan V. Gallery was next with Lengyel's Five Chimneys is titled after an aspect of Auschwitz
his book comparing Allied and Axis "war crimes" at sea in Twenty architecture which only she can recall. Even more bizarrely, Doctor
Million Tons Under the Sea. at Auschwitz is supposed to have been written by one Dr. Miklos
1951 saw the publication of Viscount Maugham's UNO & War Nyiszli, who does not appear to have ever existed! Recently, such
Crimes, which put forward mild criticism. Then came the rather trash has gone too far, and Martin Gray's For Those I Loved has
eccentric Epitaph on Nuremberg, by Montgomery Belgion, which even been panned by the normally wailing-and-gnashing-of-teeth
was issued in the USA as Victors'
Victors* Justice. Captain Russell Grenfell RN Jewish Chronicle. Of course, the necessity to continue churning out
authored Unconditional Hatred about the Allied propaganda such hysteria continues, and the latest example is a paperback
campaign. reprint of Lord Russell's 1954 ravings, Scourge of the Swastika
One of the British legal team
One tea!l1 at Niirnberg, Peter Calvocoressi, (London).
penned a short volume on the trials entitled Nuremberg: the Facts, One or two Jewish authors have made a pretence at academia
academia.
It the Law and the Consequences. Since the title was almost longer in their out-pourings. The best known is Raul Hilberg with his
than the book, it made little impact. One of the American legal Destruction of the European Jews (Chicago, 1961), and its follow-
team, Telford Taylor, who was an assistant at the IMT and in in charge up, Documents of Destruction (London, 1972). There is also Gerald
Gerald.
at the AMT, went on to write Nuremberg & Vietnam: An Amer~~an
_._,at
•^ American Reitlinger's The Final Solution (London, 1968) and Lucy' Lucy
Tragedy
Tragedy (New York, 1970). Here he bemoaned the fact that Nurn- Niirn Davidowicz's War Against the Jews 1933-45 (New York, 1975).
WarAgainst
berg had not "taught us the lesson of the futility of war." Several works do give a remarkable insight into the war-time
Another member of the American team, Francis Parker Yockey, Jewish mentality, especially Andr~
Andre* Biss's A Million Jews to Save
resigned from his position in disgust, and ended up living as as a recluse (London, 1973) and Alex Weissberg's Advocate for the Dead
in Brittas Bay in Ireland. Here he wrote Imperium (reprinted by (London, 1958; translated from German by the aforementioned
Noontide Press, P.O. Box 76062, Los Angeles) -— a mad, rambling Constantine FitzGibbon).
treatise largely lifted from Spengler and Hi tler . Yockey was eventually
Hitler. Most of the above works have been torn to shreds by later, rather
arrested at the home of a homosexual Jewish school superintendent less
less subjective, reviewers of history. The earliest, and most
in Oakland in in 1960, on a charge of passport fraud. He committed courageous, was the French socialist Paul Rassinier's milestone The
suicide eleven days later in jail, by means of a potassium l!yanide cyanide Drama of the European Jews (Steppingstones, Box 612, Silver
capsule; identical to Goring's death. Spring, Md. 20901, 1975). The next revisionist work of any
The first really detailed study of Niirnberg came out in 1966: The consequence was The Myth of the Six Million by an anonymous
Trial
Trial of the Germans by Eugene Davidson (Macmillan, NY). Both it American professor (Noontide, Ca., 1969). This provided much of
and the later Reaching Judgement at Nuremberg by Bradley F. F. Smith Milnon Really
the groundwork for the next opus to appear, Did Six Million
(London, 1977) put forward slight criticisms of the procedures, but Die? by Richard Harwood of London University. This magazine-style
do not really challenge the basis. publication has achieved a world-wide circulation greater than all
all the
More recent books are well worth attention. The Iron Fist, by a other works put together, and has been translated into nearly a
Jewish author Leo Kessler (London, 1977) describes the torture dozen languages. But the most authoritative work to date has
trials 'of
of the Waffen SS SS at Dachau in in 1946 with surprising candour, undoubtedly been Prof. Butz's Hoax of the the Twentieth Century
since the
the torturers were Jewish
Jewish also. (Historical Review Press, London, 1976).
Doenitz at Nuremberg: A Re-Appraisal by Thompson & & Stutz There have also been several peripheral works, which are worth
(NY 1976) is a collection of quotes from famous military person person- examination
examination, such as a German Jew's denial of the 'Holocaust' in in
alities, all hostile to the trials. Ginsburg's trilogy (written as J. G. Burg), Debt & Destiny,
Josef Ginsb:n.g,s
The Crime & & Punishment of I.G. Farben by Joseph Borkin (NY, Scapegoats and Nazi Crimes. The short but impressive Auschwitz
1978) contains interesting data about AMT6. Lie (Quebec
(Quebec, 1974) by Thies Christophersen gives an insight'into
The Allied Occupation Hitlen's
camp conditions as they really were. David Irving's weighty Hitten's
One of the most thorough books on the Occupation is Denazifi Denazifi- War (London, 1977) does not deny the Holocaust, but claims .~iitl~r
War Hitler
cation (London, 1969) by Constantine FitzGibbon, the brother.
cation brother of had no knowledge of it. Udo Walendy's Bild Dokumente fur die dlt~'
Louis FitzGibbon, the Katyn expert. Needless to say, Constantme Constantine Geschichtsschreibung is a useful collection of fake atrocity
FitzGibbon tends to skate over certain matters, probably because photographs.
his wife at that time was a Jewess. Thankfully, his brother exhibits
none of these tendencies in in his writings, and in fact tends more Allied & Israeli War
War Crimes
I '~ towards candour. An insight into the sinister mind-bending activities
1)1
David Irving's earlier work The Destruction of Dresden (London,
! of the' American' personnel is given in
the 'American' in Saul Padover's Psychologist in 1963) is the only work available on this subject. Katyn -— A Crime
j Germany. Another book, Diplomat Among Warriors by by Robert Without Parallel (London, 1971) is the principal of a series of books
Murphy (New York, 1964) recounts how German prisoners were on that Soviet atrocity written by Louis FitzGibbon, who also
tortured by the peace-loving American liberators. The war-time, and designed the Katyn Memorial at Hounslow.
later, roles of the OSS and CIA, are described in great detail in OSS
later The repatriations are sympathetically dealt with in Lord Bethell's
by R.R. Harris Smith (U. of CaL,Cal., 1972). Some of the behaviour of t~e
C?f the Last Secret (London, 1974) and Count.Tolstoy's
Count Tolstoy's Victims of Yalta
British soldiers in Germany is described by Leonard Mosley m in hiS
his (London, 1978).
Report from Germany (1945). But the most stunning book of all on Israeli atrocities are brazenly dealt with by Jewish authors in
Allied jiggery-pokery is Benjamin Colby's 'Twas 'Twos a Famous Victory Genesis 1948 by Dan Kurzman (London, 1970) and in in David Ben
(New Rochelle, 1974). Gurion's Israel (London, 1971). The Six Million Reconsidered by
the USA-based Committee For Truth in History is a masterpiece of
'Extermination' Epics research into the whole Jewish megalomaniac-paranoid psyche, and
A small library could be stocked with allegedly first-hand draws heavily on Jewish hatred of, and atrocities against, Gentiles;
accounts of the 'Final Solution'. No more than the best-known can both European and Palestinian.
be mentioned here. Commandant of Auschwitz, supposedly by Many of these revisionist works are available direct from
Rudolf Hoss
Hoss, was originally published by the Communist Polish Historical Review
Historical Review Press.
Press.
and is undoubtedly a fabricatic;)D:
government, 'and Eichm'!nn: The
fabrication. Eichmann: The
Savage sado-masochlstlc pot:boll~r
Truth by Comer Clarke is a sado-masochistic
Sauage Truth pot-boiler b~ed
based
on little except the author's lurid and perverted imagination.
Imagination.

69
69
(

HOLOCAUST or HOAX?
At last it has been written:
written: the book to
to silence all but conscious liars. In THE
THE HOAX OF
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, Professor Arthur Butz conclusively demolishes the
greatest propaganda legend of our times -— the legend that the Germans attempted to
"exterminate" the Jews during World War Two. Combining the historian's mastery of
documents with the technical knowledge of a scientist, Prof. Butz's book is the produc1product
of a truly massive research effort
effort lasting three years. The author takes his theme far
beyond all previous work done in this field, and his book, we feel sure, will remain the
standard volume for for many years to come. The Historical Review Press takes pleasure in
presenting a classic work, a monument of scholarship.
This book contains four APPENDICES which reproduce key documents in full. full. A
comprehensive BIBLIOGRAPHY of reference literature is provided and and. the work has
copious notes including an amusing excursion into the fantastic Jewish atrocity charges
of Antiquity, notably the Talmud's claim that 4 billion (or elsewhere 800 BOO million) Jews
were killed by the Romans in Hadrian's siege of Bethar, causing a a tidal wave of blood
that rolled boulders to the sea. The reader will experience a a remarkable sense of
h d~ia vu!
istorical d6ja
historical vui
315 pages, 32 plates and diagrams

THE JEWS SAY:

THE
"We h~ve·known
have known of it for
for some time. But we didn't want to give it
it any publicity and help the sales. Now it's too
late, it's in the open and
and we have to face
face it
it squarely."
. Abbot A. Rosen, Chicago Executive Director of the Anti-Defamation League,
Pittsburgh Press, Wed. January 261977
26 1977
PRICE (including post): U.K. & Europe £2.00 U.S.A. &
PRICE & Canada $5.00
S5.00

Did Six Million Really Die?

by RICHARD HARWOOD. 2Bpp. 28pp.
Worldwide best seller on the Holocaust myth, an easy-to-read, well illustrated magazine, ideal for mass distribution.
It has been translated into at least 7 languages. The following are available from the Historical Review Press:
English: 40p inc.
inc. postage;
German,
German, French,
French, Spanish,
Spanish, Dutch,
Dutch, Swedish
Swedish editions:
editions: 50p
50p each
each inc.
inc. postage
postage Bulk discounts
Bulk discounts available
available on
on request.
request

to have DID SIX MI

Jewish attempt to MILLION
LLiON REALLY DIE?DIE? suppressed under
under Race Relations Act flops
In 1974, the Board of Deputies referred the publication to the Attorney-General. liThe
"The Attorney-General (Sam
(Sam Silkin)
apparently felt that prosecution would have provided
provided undesirable publicity for
for the author's unsavoury views."-Jewish
Chronicle,2.B.74.
Chronicle, 2.8.74.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews then told Parliament to strengthen the 1965 Race Act, which resulted in the
1976 Race Relations Act. Even this has proved ineffective to suppress the truth, as Lord Fisher complained that "not
one country in which this obscene literature denying the Holocaust has been disseminated has so far found it possible
to use the power of the law to ban it."-Jewish Chronicle, 24.9.77.

NUREMBERG
NUREMBERG AND
AND OTHER WAR CRIMES
OTHER WAR TRIALS
CRIMES TRIALS ISBN 09505505
0 9505505 3
3 1

-- A
A NEW
NEW LOOK
LOOK

U. K. &
U.K. & Europe U.S.A. & Canada
PRICES (including post) 1 copy 75p $ 2.00
S
10 copies £ 5.00 $15.00
S 15.00
50 copies £22.00 $60.00
S60.00

This
This and the other publications mentioned may be obtained directly from the Historical Review Press, Chapel
Ascote, Ladbroke, Nr.
Nr. Southam, Warwickshire, England. .